Ash and Bi's Travel Adventures

Delhi and the End of our Travels

2009-03-04T12:25:00.017Z

We were up at 4am on Tuesday morning and our prearranged tuk-tuk took us to Jaipur station (but not before his brother, who had arranged the pickup, had demanded a 50 rupee commission!). Our train was on time and we managed to get a few hours sleep in our favourite upper berth 3AC beds, arriving into Old Delhi station just after midday. The final 20 minutes of our journey, as we crawled through the outer city slums into Delhi station, were fascinating. The slums were unbelievable; rickety wooden and corrugated iron huts were perched almost on top of the railway lines; barefooted street children played between the tracks and women carried out their washing whilst the men sat talking and looked on. This was our last Indian train journey and we will miss the ease and simplicity of travelling by train (it's a real joy!) and the amazing outlook it gives you on the Indian scenery, culture and life in general.

We disembarked and after queuing with the masses we bought a pre-paid taxi ticket. A tuk tuk 'taxi' took us across Delhi towards our hotel, situated in the Paharganj area on the border between Old and New Delhi. Our first impressions of Old Delhi was something akin to 'oh God, what a dump!' and as we neared our hotel (our driver also having no idea where he was going) we got increasingly worried by how run-down the area was and how little tourists were around... never a good sign! Fortunately we turned a corner and entered a narow street amass with tourists and with shops spilling out onto it. The area reminded us a lot of the Thamel area of Kathmandu so we were on familiar ground and relaxed instantly. Our driver finally found our hotel after consulting with Ash and our trusty guidebook along with the help of several eager locals and we checked into a rather pleasant hotel tucked away down a quieter alley.

We arrived starving so found a recommended restaurant that served up an awesome Paneer Punjabi, great tandoori roti and a big bowl of curd and so we tucked in! We then grabbed a tuk tuk ride, passing the parliament buildings in comparatively spacious and quiet New Delhi before arriving at Gandhi Smitri which is Gandhi's final home as well as the site of Gandhi's assassination. His house has been converted into an interesting museum which we took time wandering around before visiting the site where he was shot by a Hindu zealot.

We grabbed another tuk tuk ride and headed east across New Delhi to see Humayun's Tomb, built as a mausoleum to the Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1562 and quoted as a 'must see' in our guidebook. It did not disappoint and closely resembles the magnificent Taj Mahal, only constructed in red sandstone and missing the surrounding minarets. Very much like the Taj itself, it was much more impressive to look at rather than walk inside. We returned back to our hotel by tuk tuk, passing India Gate along the way which resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was built by the British as a WWI War Memorial in 1972. That evening we returned to the same restaurant as lunchtime as we wanted more of the delicious Punjabi Paneer! After dinner we wandered the backstreets of Paharganj and found some fantastic small markets; there were fruit and vegetable stalls selling really fresh, tempting fruit and veg (which we daren't touch!) and spice sellers who had lain all their wares out on the stone streets.

Wednesday was the very last day in India and also the very last day of our 13 month career break. We were very much of mixed emotions. We have had the most amazing time away and are feeling excited, apprehensive, sad and happy all at once. It will be lovely to see our families but we will miss the independence and freedom offered by travelling.

We visited the sights of frenetic, mad, dusty, dirty Old Delhi. We had to laugh at the first few tuk tuk drivers we tried to hire. The first one agreed to our price and then wouldn't budge until we visited his shop (we got out and walked off) and the second one quoted a ridiculously high price and when we said 'No way!' he turned on his engine and drove off furious! Fortunately we found a better driver on our third attempt and so we made our way to the Jama Masjid. It is a huge, red mosque which we poked our head into but we did not hang around long as there have been recent tensions between the Hindus and the Muslims here.

We took a quick ride in a rickshaw around to the Red Fort of Old Delhi, paid the expensive Rs250 entry fee and spent the next hour wandering the grounds and looking at the monuments, which were interesting but not particulary amazing (although we have been rather spoilt recently!). We then walked along Chandni Chowk, the main bazaar in Old Delhi. On sale was all the same old stuff and it was very chaotic so after a half hour we dived into a tuk tuk and headed to Connaught Place, a more developed area of New Delhi and tucked into a cappuccino, where we mused over our amazing 13 month trip and what it would be like when we headed back to England!

Hungry, we headed to a recommended restaurant called Saravana Bhavan, and we had to queue outside with the locals for a table... it was a very popular place and deservedly so as they dished up a fantastic Paneer Dosai when we finally got to our table. We walked around Connaught Place a little more before heading back to our hotel where we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Ash's best friend Jez had suggested we go to the Metropolis Restaurant to celebrate our last night in India and so we decided to follow his advice, getting a nice table for two on the rooftop restaurant. We had a really nice meal and splashed out our few remaining rupees on several different delicious dishes, including our favourite Malai Kofta, chapattis and curd. Ash had his first beer in months and savoured every drop! It was a lovely fitting finish to our 13 months.

Having had just a few hours sleep we got up at 2am to go to the airport for our early morning flight back to London. In India everything takes much longer here so we were advised to arrive for check in at the airport 3 hours before our 6.50am flight. Stepping over the hotel staff who were sleeping on a mat on the floor at the entrance to the hotel, we were met by our driver who took us to his taxi. When we say 'taxi', what we really mean is 'rusting old hulk'! We were driven through the eerily quiet streets; the cows were sat in the middle of them chewing the cud.

We love India... you cannot do anything without something untowards happening. It sounds a bizarre thing to say but it does make for exciting stories and excellent memories. True to form, just 5km from the airport our driver pulled over and told us the car had broken down. Great!! He said it was no problem, that the engine had overheated and cut out. He grabbed two empty plastic bottles from the seat pocket and ran off in search of water to cool down the engine. We sat there in the pitch dark and waited patiently, thinking we would be walking the remaining 5kms to the airport on our own. He returned about 10 minutes later, bottles full of murky water, which he poured into and all over the engine. Smoke and steam erupted everywhere and we watched the water boiling in the engine from where we sat! Well, whatever he did it worked and after a few minutes he started the engine and crawled the remaining 5km so as not to overheat the engine again.

So we arrived safely at the airport, but oh no, the fun didn't stop here. At check in, Ash handed over all the usual paperwork: passports, booking receipt, online check-in papers and then was asked to produce the credit card with which we booked the tickets (apparently this is a new anti-fraud measure for BA). Unfortunately we had booked our tickets using our Australian credit card over 6 months ago and completely forgot this fact when, on leaving the country 3 months later, we sensibly closed our Australian accounts as you have to pay to keep them open. Having explained all this, of course the check-in staff still refused to accept us on the flight despite us having everything to prove who we were! With no choice, we were forced to buy a further 2 tickets costing us double what we had originally paid for them! We weren't happy, but were eased a little by being upgraded to Premier Economy and getting free use of the VIP lounge in the airport. The rest of the flight was pretty normal, except the absolute chaos getting everyone seated before take off... many people had sat in the wrong seats and it was madness (and a hell of a job for the stewardesses) getting them moved!

We landed in London safely and on time at 11.15am and after collecting our bags went out into the new and slightly overwhelming Terminal 5 where we were met by our families. Ash's parents thought we looked like a couple of hippies, emerging at Arrivals in our handmade Indian clothes and also couldn't believe how much weight we had lost - we were on the go so much we hadn't noticed! We had a very bizarre trip back to Ash's parents. Everything looked so clean and pristine and it was a little tricky to adapt.

We have really had the trip of a lifetime - it has been such a privilege to see and experience so much of the world and it's been worth every second. It's a period in our lives we will always look back at with such fondness... we have stories to tell our grandchildren. And for now, it's a return to the Western World for us, the adjustment back into developed society and jobs, homes and putting down roots. We're sure we will adapt with time, but we will always carry the memories and experiences that will make us appreciate what we so often have taken for granted.

Ashley & Bianca Workman

March 2008

Jaipur and the Amber Fort

2009-03-01T11:31:00.002Z

After a short 45 minute flight we arrived into Jaipur early on Sunday morning and took a pre-paid taxi to our hostel called Devi Niwas, just outside the city centre. We struck lucky as it is a lovely family-run guesthouse which is tucked away in a wealthy and quieter part of Jaipur about 1.5 miles outside the chaotic city centre. Our room is bright and airy and great value for 5 pounds a night. After a chapati breakfast we walked to the main road and negotiated a tuk-tuk to take us 11km north of the city to the Amber Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site. The red sandstone fort is out in the desert and situated about 300m up on the top of a hill and from a distance the fort looked extremely impressive. As we neared the fort we saw painted elephants pounding along the streets and ferrying tourists up the hill to the fort. We declined the experience as the animals are not always treated well and made our own way up by foot.

The inside of the fort was less impressive than it's striking exterior and is a labyrinth of fairly bland stone passages and empty rooms. We wandered for a while, enjoying the views from the top and after encountering a few strange individuals along the way in some of the quieter areas of the fort we decided it was enough. Bi is finding the constant and exceptionally blatent staring from men (and sometimes women) a bit daunting and tiring. We stumbled upon a coffee shop where we savoured a rare cappuccino before deciding to get out of the searing heat and head back to Jaipur centre for a Thali and some Dosai for our lunch. At the end of our meal the waiter stood over us and demanded we leave a tip which we did not like so we walked out not leaving a penny on principle which left him rather annoyed. After lunch we queued outside the Raj Mandir Cinema (the biggest Hindi cinema in India) and bought 2 tickets for the evening to a major 'Bollywood' movie on current release called 'Delhi 6'. We could not help but peer into the McDonalds next door to check out the menu....and found the chicken tikka chapati meal deal quite amusing!

We chilled out at our hotel for a couple of hours during the heat of the day and returned by rickshaw to the cinema (which is set up inside like a theatre with box seats and stalls) in the evening for our film. We had 'emerald' class seats (middle class seats in the stalls) and joined all the locals to watch the movie. It was great to see the local culture like this and it was a big affair for people. The cinema had a distinctly tacky 70's look and at the entrance they were selling samosas, cheese filled chapatis, ice-creams and popcorn which we sadly had to avoid due to our weak stomachs! Although we could not understand the Hindu language we were able to get the gist of the film (they also intermittently burst into an English sentence which is quite strange) and it was actually quite good. Even more fascinating was the way everybody would whoop, cheer and clap at certain points and happily make mobile phone calls throughout the movie and speak as loudly as they felt like! Anything goes here and nobody really complains. It was a great evening and we returned to the guesthouse by tuk-tuk rather than rickshaw since it felt a little safer in the dark.

The following day, Monday, we took a rickshaw to the main old city gate and wandered through Jaipur towards the City Palace. Jaipur is aptly called the 'Pink City' as the whole of the old town is constructed of reddish-pink sandstone. The city streets are quite wide and uniform but of course have that distinct Indian feel to them with grubby little shops spilling out onto the streets, cows wandering around, telephone and power lines dangling untidily and a mass of street children and beggars. It was fascinating stuff and very noisy and chaotic with parades and dances going on in the streets and the endless, and we mean endless, tooting of horns from all the traffic.

We made our way to the city palace and wandered the vast complex of courtyards, gardens and buildings. Our entrance fee came with a free audio guide which was helpful in explaining the history and meaning of the sights. We visited the Welcome Palace, Armoury, Hall of Public Audiences and the Pitam Niwas Chowk courtyard which was beautifully decorated with peacock bas reliefs.

In the afternoon we visited Hawa Mahal, a remarkable, honeycombed, pink sandstone building built for the gentry women of Jaipur. From here we decided to do a spot of shopping. You have to be so careful which shops you enter because it is so difficult to get back out again. Ash bought himself some Indian serving dishes to add to his collection while Bi purchases a tablecloth. Bartering for the tablecloth was hilarious. We entered the shop and were seated like a king and queen and the owner then proceeded to grab out every type and colour of cloth he had whether we liked it or not. We selected the one we wanted and the price started at 2000 rupees. When we burst out laughing the price dropped to 1600.. ok ok..you take for 1600 and the assistant put the tablecloth in a bag as if we were total mugs and would take it at that price. We knew it was worth about 300 rupees so we named our price and less than 1000 rupees was refused we got up and walked out of the shop. The owner continued to count down and yelled out after us on the street eventually giving it to us for 300 rupees. We walked away happy with our purchase and thankful that our extended travels have made us a touch more savvy then the usual tourist. You can't blame them for having a go though. Jaipur is known for its high prices in expectation that you will barter hard.

As we walked back to the hotel we saw several holy processions making their way down the streets, singing, dancing and generally causing all kind of chaos! The traffic was backed up miles and it was fascinating to watch. We wandered back along the city streets past food vendors and spice sellers (with fantastically colourful tikka powder on offer) and found a quieter street and took a rickshaw back to our hotel.

We relaxed at the hotel again in the afternoon having become hot, grubby and tired in the heat and dirt and fumes of the city. For dinner we headed to well recommended vegetarian restaurant where we received exceptionally snotty waiter service. Bi was ready to throw her bowl of channa dahl over the waiter! It was early to bed as we take a 5am train to Dehli tommorrow morning. The guesthouse owner tried to arrange a taxi to take us the 1.5 mile journey to the train station and when they quoted 300 rupees she slammed down the phone and then proceeded to take all their business cards, rip them up and throw them out.... good for her! It should cost 50 rupees but they operate on the basis that you are 'stuck' and can get away with ripping you off. We had to walk outside and arrange a tuk tuk to collect us and one of the men who had taken us by rickshaw a couple of times had a 'brother' (as they always do) that had a rickshaw so we arranged a 4.30am pick up.

Udaipur

2009-02-28T15:00:00.018Z

On Wednesday night we boarded a sleeper train. We sat and ate our dinner of crisps, chocolate and bananas then settled into our bunks for the night. We decided to try class 2AC (AC stands for air conditioning) which is a carriage with sets of two tier bunks in it rather than three tier and where each bed has a curtain that pulls across it. Unfortunately for us, there were some exceptionally noisy families in our carriage so we didn't get to sleep they disembarked at Jaipur 5 hours later.

14 hours later we arrived into the city of Udaipur in the southern part of Rajasthan at 8.30am on Thursday morning and took a tuk-tuk the short ride to our guesthouse. The city of Udaipur is situated on Lake Pichola and is prettier and far quieter than any of the other places we have visited in India so far. We checked into our room which overlooks the Lake and the 'Lake Palace', a beautiful white palace and famous 5* hotel built on an island in the centre of the lake . It was used in the James Bond movie 'Octopussy'. After a shower (under a tap on the wall!!) we headed out into the town, starting our day with some delicious cake and a cappuccino at a 'German Bakery'.

Having had enough time to suss out Udaipur and the amount of time we wanted to spend, we took a tuk-tuk the short distance back to the train station to book our onward tickets to Jaipur. Over 14 million people travel the trains here each day and there is a specified 'tourist quota' so for some journeys you have to be booked well in advance. It was not a very successful trip as everything was totally booked. Unbeknown to us there is a big Holi festival in Jaipur and Delhi starting around 7th March so hotels and train seats are almost all booked out. With little other option and in a bit of a panic we returned to our hotel to look at other options. As regularly occurs, we had to firmly tell the tuk tuk driver to 'get lost' when he tried to renege on our agreed fare at the end of the journey!!

We decided not to risk our lives on the notoriously dangerous and rather horrid night buses and were lucky enough to find a cheap flight on Jet Airways to Jaipur. We were so disappointed to be missing out on the train as they are a really cheap, easy and comfortable way to travel... in the right class of course!!! However, the prospect of a 45 minute flight was more appealing than a 14 hour bus rickety journey. We had enough of those through South America! From Jaipur we managed to get a train ticket 6 hours to Dehli, our final destination and exit point.

We had read that Udaipur is famous for its cooking courses and being huge foodies we were very keen to give one a go! We checked out two highly recommended classes, one run by a company called 'The Spice Box' and the other a family run kitchen course. They both offered instruction on how to prepare totally different dishes so we adopted the 'only here once' attitude and booked onto both.. one for each day of our stay! We had a delicious Thali lunch and then in the afternoon we wandered the beautiful city palace, situated on a hill in the city centre which afforded fantastic views over both the city and Lake Pichola.

That evening we joined the 'Spice Box' cooking school and with no one else there we had a private lesson just for the two of us. The chef called Shakti showed us through the basics of Indian cooking, spices and masalas and from this we then prepared many different dishes ranging from Malai Kofta, Palak Paneer, Vegetable Cutlets and Biryani through to making our own Chapattis, Chai tea and a deliciously different Kashmiri Saffron Tea. The lesson was a little less hands on than we had experienced in Thailand and a little more like a cookery demonstration but nevertheless very informative and we shouldn't have any trouble making the dishes back home. We ate everything that was cooked and so we rolled out of the cooking course and collapsed absolutely stuffed in our hotel room afterwards!!

On Friday morning we had a leisurely start (sleep-ins have been few and far between) and walked to the beautiful 17th century Jagdish Temple, which stands high on another hill in Udaipur and is carved ornately with stone elephants and camels. From here we wandered some of the small stalls, looking at the various clothes and handmade leather-bound books on offer. Bi bought a skirt and a leather journal (made from camel hide as cows are sacred here) to use to create her own Indian cookery bible... Ash did all the bartering as he has mastered it now!

We crossed to the other side of the lake to the much less touristy Hanuman Ghat area which was much like some of the other places we have visited: ramshackle old stone houses that look half finished, stalls cooking amazing looking sweets and samosas, cows and goats wandering down the streets as if they were people and rickshaws bumping around. We stopped in the local kitchenware shops and bartered oursleves some good deals on a spice box and kadhai (an indian style wok which they weigh to determine the price) so that we can put some of our newly learned cooking skills into practice when we get back to England!

That afternoon we went for another cooking course, run by a nice Indian lady called Sushma. The course was fantastic, well paced and extremely informative and we learned to cook many different dishes that we hadn't learned before. We cooked Paneer Butter Masala, Aloo Gobi, Dal Makhani and made stuffed Paneer Parathas which was delicious! Sushma is a wealth of knowledge and so we picked her brains on everything and anything about Indian cooking. Again we ate all that was cooked and returned back to our hotel absolutely stuffed again! So far so good, eating in India has been a lot better than expected although we have been pretty selective.

Tomorrow we catch an early morning flight the short 45 minute hop to Jaipur, in North Eastern Rajasthan where we will spend a couple of days.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

2009-02-25T13:31:00.022Z

We boarded a sleeper train just after 6pm for the 12 hour journey from Varanasi to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. Our sleeper carriage looked like a very basic dormitory and was split into several open cubicles with 8 beds in each, stacked 3 high on two sides and 2 high on the window side . There were a number of other tourists on the train so we got chatting and then Ash did as recommended by Jeremy, riding on a Indian train whilst listening to Ravi Shankar on his iPod! We were lucky to have a quiet carriage and soon after dinner and Chai tea was served we were in our surprisingly comfortable bed; we had the upper beds 3 stories high. We were provided with a blanket, sheets and a pillow and slept well through the night, helped by the gentle rocking of the train.

We arrived into Agra Fort station at 7.15am on Wednesday morning and did the usual haggling with a moto tuk-tuk driver to take us a few kilometres into the town centre. We checked out a number of different hostels before settling on one with a roof restaurant with fantastic views over the Taj Mahal. It was superb to finally see the Taj Mahal in all it's majestic white marble splendour. We were determined that we would make it to the Taj Mahal on our travels and here we were! The 500 year old building did not disappoint and it is all it is made out to be. We both said it is one of the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen and it was very memorable to be sat enjoying our chapattis and curd breakfast with views straight to the palace over all the higgeldy-piggeldy, derelict rooftops of Agra.

After a well earned 'bucket' shower we took a brief walk around Agra and the outside gates of the Taj. Agra itself is not an atractive place, looking decrepid and somewhat run down. We returned to our hostel where we had arranged to hire a moto tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon. We had decided to see some of the more further afield historical sites of Agra and hiring a driver was recommended as the best way to do it. Our first stop was the huge Jama Masjid mosque, built in the 16th Century and situated near to the station where we arrived, before wandering a local market and marvelling at the piles of spices, fresh breads and chapattis being cooked and tiny, narrow alleyways which we squeezed through to look at the small shops selling jewellery, trinkets, soap and cosmetics. When we returned our tuk tuk we were a little earlier than our driver expected and he had a head full of henna which he proceeded to then leave on his hair for the rest of the day! He was going to see his girlfriend in Kolkatta the following day and wanted to cover his greys!

Our moto driver then took us 13km outside of Agra to Sikandra, the last resting place of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great. It is a beautiful, red sandstone mausoleum and was quiet, isolated from the main tourist trail and after wandering the huge tomb we sat in a shady spot and relaxed for a while. We returned back to Agra, crossing the main Yamuna river and stopping in to see the small, Persian decorated tomb of Chini Ka Rauza. From here we travelled along the river bank to Itmad-Ud- Daulah, otherwise referred to as the 'Baby Taj'. Like the Taj Mahal, it is a beautiful white marble tomb, just on a smaller scale to the Taj itself. From here we also had excellent views across the river to Agra and up and down the banks. We continued onwards to the gardens of Mehtab Bagh, directly opposite the Taj Mahal and on the opposite side of the river. The views to the Taj we exceptional and would have been a perfect place to sit and watch the sun setting had it not been for the pestering children... Ash got to practice his 'ne chella!' ('go away!') but we got fed up in the end and decided to head back to our hotel roof terrace for a sunset in peace!

We returned tired out but happy from our day's sightseeing and sat in the rooftop restaurant and watched the sunset over the Taj Mahal. We had expected to see the Taj turn a shade of pink and red as the sun set, but it was not quite so.. it more went yellow and then dark as the light faded. The building was not lit up at night as we had thought it might be. We had an early dinner and were in bed by 8pm, exhausted after our long day and long train journey.

We arose this morning at 6am and headed down to the East Gate of the Taj Mahal. After paying the obscene 10 pound each fee entry (well, a comparatively obscene amount for India) we made our way through the queue and security and entered the sight of the Taj Mahal. It was stunning. As we walked through the central gate, the picture postcard view of the Taj, the icon of India and one of the 'new' 7 wonders of the world was reflected in the water right in front of us. Ash got extremely snap happy with his camera and we spent the next hour walking around the beautiful palace, watching it change colour as the sun rose and capturing lots of different photos. We walked inside the huge white marble monument and saw the tombs of the king, Shah Jahn and of his wife for which the Taj Mahal was built, Mumtaz Mahal before returning to the sight of the famous postcard view and sitting for a while to soak it all up.... with a million other tourists of course!

From the Taj Mahal we hired a rickshaw driver to take us to Agra Fort. The huge red fort is more like a walled, palatial city. It is the most important fort in India. The great Mughal maharajas lived here and the country was governed from here. It contained the largest state treasury and mint and was visited by foreign ambassadors, travellers and the highest dignitaries who participated in the making of history in India. The fort is beautiful inside, ornately carved and with wide courtyards and sweeping views over the city, river and towards the Taj Mahal. We spent a couple of hours walking in the heat, through the huge stone gates, marble palaces and narrow passages before returning to the area around our hotel. On the way back the rickshaw driver jumped off and let Ash have a go pedalling uphill with Bi and the driver in the back!

We spent the remainder of the day chilling out in cafes because we can afford to eat and drink to our heart's content and using the internet in order to pass time before our night train at 6:20pm to Udapiur in Rajastahn, north-west India. We are both looking forward to the train ride!

Into India, Varanasi and the Shiva Festival

2009-02-23T09:18:00.027Z

On Saturday afternoon, with only 12 days left of our 13 month trip, we arrived in Varanasi airport after a short 45 minute flight with... gulp... Air India from Kathmandu. There were only 16 people on the plane! The airport is in a very rural area 20km from the city so the border formalities were surprisingly rapid. As we had half expected, our arranged transfer was nowhere to be seen so after searching around the airport we took a taxi for the 1 hour transfer. The taxi was fantastic, it was a white Ambassador and a real throwback to the days of the British Raj. As we drove towards Varanasi we were surprised at how quiet and rural it was but the peace did not last long... as we came into Varanasi it became sheer madness with traffic (mostly rickshaws and tuk tuks that paid no attention to the correct sides of the road!!) choking the dusty, dirty streets, cows stood in the middle of the road or roaming along as if they were living the life of a human and ad hoc roadworks causing even more disruption... it was definitely a big welcome to India!

Our taxi driver dropped us off somewhere on the edge of the old town about 10 minutes from our guesthouse as vehicles cannot enter the small windy streets near the Ganges river (and our accommodation) as they are too slim. So we had to walk the final leg of our journey through a labyrinth of narrow, filthy streets, including passing through a metal detector which was rather disconcerting. It felt as if we might get lost inside forever. We were bombarded with hotel touts and other supposedly 'just being helpful' individuals (we were told to trust no one) as soon as we let one leg out of the taxi in all the chaos we finally had to give in and put some trust in a young man who claimed to know the way to our hotel and had an official hotel card... we followed him with caution!

We were safely delivered to the correct hotel, situated on the banks of the Ganges River at one of the many ghats... ours was Meer Ghat. Jeremy, Ash's best mate and best man at our wedding was sitting in the internet room waiting to meet us. It can be frazzling and totally chaotic when you arrive somewhere new so we have never been so happy to see a familiar face. We checked into our room then went straight to the balcony area which overlooked the Ganges. Words cannot describe the sight and the riot of colours and activity that lay before us; it left us speechless.

We set out to explore and first stop was a local Chai tea served on the street in a small clay pot which you smash on the ground afterwards. There we sat on a wall, side by side with the locals and cows enjoying this sickly sweet tea! We wandered down steep steps and walked along the Ghats by the Ganges trying to take in the activity around us. The river is wide and lined on one side with hotels and millions of people just sitting around, getting a shave, having their hair cut, doing their washing, women standing and holding up their saris to dry in the sun like human washing lines, street sellers selling pappadums and snacks and small children trying to sell candles to set afloat on the river. The women wear exceptionally bright Saris which provides an amazing burst of colour everywhere. The streets of Varanasi and along the Ganges are absolutely filthy, with human and animal faeces in plentiful quantities along the pavement in some areas. It can only be described as insane....total madness...total chaos... with people and cows everywhere!

We climbed back up from the Ghats and wandered the streets of the old town which are exceptionally narrow and lined with local food stands selling sickly sweet Jalebis, Galub Jamun, savoury Samosas and Pakoras, shops selling cheap cotton hippy clothes, glass beads, sitars and silk and local eateries. Dinner was a Vegetarian Thali for 40 pence... a bottle of coke costs 12 pence....oh we were cautious but so excited to be able to afford to eat BIG again!! In the evening, we sat the big balcony of our hotel completely mesmorised by the activity along the Ganges below us. Varanasi is a wonderful and fascinating place and not somewhere we will ever forget; it is full of life, energy and colour and is a very spiritual place to visit. We love it!

We started day two (Sunday) with a dawn boat ride along the Ganges river. We were a little eager and ended up out of bed and dressed before the boatmen themselves. There was no need to look for a boatman, as they will definitely find you first! We bartered our price for an hour long ride and climbed into an old wooden canoe. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience. All the locals were bathing in the holy Ganges river and making a racket; Hare Krishnas were sitting in a circle on pillars and chanting; a holy man was taking what looked like a yoga/meditation class; the first cremations were being set up at the burning ghat. We soaked up the atmosphere and the sunrise before heading back for breakfast... Paratha with Subji (curried vegetable) and curd which was delicious.

Our main task for the day was to get to the train station and buy onward tickets to Agra and then Udapuir in Rajasthan. There is a tourist quota for tickets each day and we didn't want to miss out or get lumbered with cattle class seats on a 12 hour journey. We negotiated with a rickshaw to take us the 4km journey. Rickshaws are a fantastic way to see a place and and provide such an good insight into everyday life as they weave in and out of all the backstreets. Outside of the old (and touristy) quarter, the streets were madness and jam packed with constantly tooting bicycles, rickshaws and tuk-tuks, lots of cows (which seem to live off a diet of left over food and garbage and fruit and vegetable carts where the owners are sat on top, in squatting position waiting to serve! The streets are lined the most decrepit looking dwellings and shops and fruit and vegetable stalls. Tickets in hand, we headed back to the old quarter but not before a brief scuffle between rickshaw drivers had taken place as they fought each other for our custom.

We had a vegetarian Thali lunch then spent the afternoon chilling around the town; Bi doing a spot of clothes shopping. If they don't have your size or colour, they'll make it for you within a few hours! Late afternoon we walked to the cremation ghat of Manikarnika which closely resembled the site of Pashaputinath in Kathmandu. We watched the burning pyres from a respectful distance and saw many bodies being brought down to cremate in the open and have the ashes scattered into the river. Between 200 and 300 bodies are brought here every day. Almost as interesting is watching the 'so called guides' and con merchants pounce on the most vulnerable tourists and extract money from them for 'good karma'!!

In the evening, Bi decided to take some time on her own to chill on the balcony at the guesthouse and have her dinner of dahl and paratha overlooking the Ganges. Ash headed out for dinner with Jeremy. On the way home Ash encountered the first of the Shiva celebrations getting underway..... a large religious crowd making their way down the Ganges all insisted on shaking his hand and throwing rice over him as an offering!

On Monday we awoke at 5am to prayer calls and the noise of music and chanting, signifying the beginning of a Shiva Festival in Varanasi. We gave it a few hours before heading out for our Indian breakfast (chapati, curd and Subji) on the balcony, overlooking the action. Poor old Bi was not in good form having been covered in over 45 bed bug bites on her ears, face, neck and arms (which we think she picked up at the last teahouse we stayed at in Lukla) and had to douse herself with antihistamine cream! It was not pleasant and she was not impressed!

The Ganges river and riverside was packed with people and wooden canoe boats so we got ourselves down to the river quickly to soak up some of the madness. There was music everywhere, enormous queues for the temples, millions of people were bathing, immersing themselves fully in the filthy Ganges river, men and women were having their heads shaved (so there was hair everywhere), faces were being painted... it was a riot of colour and frenetic activity, a real bombardment of all senses. We spent the morning fighting our way through the crowds on the Ghats... the atmosphere was unbelievable, overwhelming. There is no way to describe the place and do it justice.

Our hotel was full for the night due to the Shiva celebrations so we gathered our bags and moved down a few Ghats to another Guesthouse which was very pleasant and only 3 pounds 50 a night for us both. We had a big lunch, relaxed a little and then in the afternoon to escape the crowds and madness we took another walk south along the ghats towards Assi Ghat. On the way we passed another burning ghat which this time was really quite grisly. On one pyre a burned, charred head, shoulder and arm was clearly visible (until the man attending the fire pushed it back in with a stick). Bi was disgusted! On our return, we bought a small floating candle from a local boy and fought our way down to the bank through a huge swarm of moths to set it on the Ganges river. Jeremy said he would say some 'puja' (Hindi prayers) but before he could manage them he promptly slipped on the bottom step in the darkness and fell into the river! Instead of Puja we had instant prayers of "oh my god please don't let his head go under the water!". It was hilarious and fortunately he only fell in as deep as his waist (thus avoiding full immersion and the possibility of a nasty stomach upset!). Ash took the opportunity to rib him deservedly as he walked home soaked in the River Ganges, reminding him that there are apparently 1.5 million fecal bacteria per litre of water and that the normal safe bathing amount is just 200!!! It was rapid walk back to the guesthouse for a shower followed by an another Indian feast of a dinner.

Today, Tuesday, is our last day here in Varanasi. Bi and Jeremy took an early morning yoga class and we spent the rest of the day just mulling around and doing lots of eating in the old quarter which is rather quiet after yesterday's festival. The food has been really good here in Varanasi and they have been cooking everything fresh to order. At around 5, we said goodbye to Jeremy and Varanasi and headed to the station for our overnight train 12 hours west to Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal. We had a lot of trouble finding a tuk-tuk and when we did find some and they saw our bags they all ganged together and quadrupled their prices thinking we would have no choice. As a matter of principle we refused to let them win and ended up piling us and our bags onto the back of a small rickshaw and some poor man peddled us to the station!

Trekking to Everest Base Camp

2009-02-21T04:30:00.016Z

On Saturday morning we joined our tour that was to take us into the Himalayas, trekking to Everest Base Camp. After a introductory meeting with our group and guide we went to a dingy hire shop and picked up two of the warmest, snuggest sleeping bags we could find. From here we walked a short distance to the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project (KEEP) to understand how we could minimise our impact upon the fragile Himalayan environment. Our group were very pleasant, friendly, and a real mixture of ages and nationalities which was great as this is always a bit of a worry when joining a tour... you never know who you are going to be with for the next 15 days!

On Sunday morning we were up very early and transferred by bus to Kathmandu domestic airport to take our flight to Lukla. The flight into Lukla is notorious for being delayed so we were lucky to only have to wait an extra hour for our flight. The last tour had to wait 3 days for the unpredictable Himalayan weather to clear! The flight is also infamous for its outstandingly poor safety record... flight to crash ratio it is one of the most dangerous flights in the world so we were understandably a little anxious! We boarded our tiny Twin Otter prop plane (owned by 'Yeti Airlines') which was just big enough for two pilots, our tour group of 12 and bags. We sat on the left hand side as advised to get the best views and began our 45 minute flight. As our little plane ascended above the haze and pollution of Kathmandu the whole snow-covered Himalayan range emerged to our port side. The flight was spectacular and we spent the whole time gazing through the tiny windows at the enormous snowcapped mountains around us. Below us, the hills were all terraced for farming and as we neared the end of our flight the plane seemed to pass over some of the mountains by what looked like only a few feet! We finally entered an enormous valley, the mountains close on either side and rising high above us. We began our descent into Lukla airport. The runway is tiny, only 500m long, 20m wide, on a sharp incline and at one end it drops off the mountainside into the valley far below and at the other end is an enormous stone wall! The pilot literally dumped the plane down onto the runway and shoved the reverse thrust and brakes on as hard as possible.... we had made it and we all whooped and cheered with delight!

On stepping out of the plane we were awestruck, both with the quality of the scenery and the cleanliness of the air. We were surrounded by towering mountains and green forests. We wandered through the small Nepali sherpa village of Lukla, grabbed some breakfast and began our trek. We were well equipped... 4 excellent guides and 5 small but enormously strong porters helped us make our way to Mt Everest and it's Base Camp. It took us 9 days (including 2 rest days) to reach the dizzying, altitude sickness-inducing heights of 5,450m above sea level. As we started out our trek we hiked through tiny sherpa villages where life is clearly very simple and self-sustained with the local people growing all their own food. There are no vehicles with all goods, including building materials all transported from town to town via 'human' lorries. We were amazed by the loads carried by these local porters along the trek; some were bent over double with huge, impossible loads strapped to their backs and supported by a band around their heads.

Each day we would walk about 5-6 hours along dusty, windy tracks that took us higher and higher into the Himalayas; often stopping to let herds of yaks past. As we ascended, the villages became much smaller and sparser, and the vegetation was replaced by towering rock mountainsides and huge snow-capped peaks of a scale we have never seen before. The scenery was truly majestic, lined with Tibetan Buddhist stupas and adorned with Tibetan prayer flags. As we climbed higher the air became thinner and thiner, making every step arduous; by the time we reached Everest Base Camp the oxygen levels were only at 52% of what we normally breathe at sea-level.

Our accommodation each night were small, family-run teahouses and on arriving we would do our usual, have a wet-wipe 'shower' and change into our warmest clothes and then huddle around a small stove in the centre of a communal room. The facilities were extremely basic but adequate. At bedtime (usually around 8pm because it was so cold!) we would return to our freezing, draughty, wooden rooms and dive into our sleeping bags to try and get warm. Most mornings our water had frozen in their containers and putting on our trekking clothes was like getting into blocks of ice! The food was actually quite reasonable, all home-cooked rice, noodles and the local Nepali dish, dahl baht ('lentils, potato -vegetable curry and rice'). It was very hearty and good mountain food so we indulged many times! For breakfast we would normally share a bowl of porridge and a Tibetan Bread, akin to a large, flattened, deep-fried doughnut (and spread with peanut butter it was unhealthy but quite tasty!).

In order to acclimatise and prevent the onset of altitude sickness, we stopping for a day each in the towns of Namche Bazar and Dingboche (situated at 3,440m and 4,530m altitude respectively). On these 'rest' days we climbed higher to the Himalayas Museum and Ama Dablam Base Camp and then returned to the towns which was supposed to combat the effects of altitude very well. On one night we stopped in the tiny town of Tengboche, the site of a large Tibetan monastery where it began to snow heavily! It was the coldest night's sleep we have ever experienced that night, in our small wooden hut. The following morning the whole valley was covered in snow and it resembled a winter wonderland... we sang Christmas songs as we trudged along a snow covered woodland trail; it was so atmospheric.

We reached Base Camp on day 9 of our 15 day trek. Located at 5,360m along a rugged, glaciated valley that resembled a messy, rocky, moonscape, it was little of an anti-climax to such a stunning scenic walk and quite a disappointing site if we are honest. Nevertheless we celebrated with a bar of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate before making the journey to our teahouse. The way back was a little precarious with steep lateral moraines covered with the most enormous boulders which hung by a thread. The exceptionally slow and stop start pace of the resdt of the group in such dangerous cohnditions made Bi a little panicky, so in the interests of our own safety we shot off down the path leaving our group a way behind. We continued the pace home and the rest of the group caught up with us 1.5 hours later, where we were already sat by the fire - washed, wearing clean clothes and enjoying a cup of tea! Compared to other treks we have done the pace of this trip was little a slow but it did give us plenty of time to admire and soak up the amazing scenery around us.

The real highlight of our trip was the day after Base Camp when 7 of us from our group decided to ascend Kala Patthar, 5,643m above sea level and the highest any of us have ever been (and only 50 metres short of the altitude at base camp 2 on Everest). We were up super early (5am) and began climbing in the dark. Every step was an effort and Bi really struggled with the altitude (not helped by the lack of breakfast for energy) and the lack of oxygen, stopping several times from bad nauseaous. However, she made it thanks to sheer determination, a Mars Bar and sucking on some Werther's Originals sweets! Bagging the summit felt like a proper achievement and the stunning surrounding mountain vista, including awesome views of Mt Everest, was a great reward. It was bitterly cold on the mountain, perhaps -20 degrees and we all had painfully frozen hands and feet so we only managed about 10 minutes on the summit before heading back down. It took two hours to make the ascent and only 25 minutes to get back down again.

Over the following 5 days we descended back through the mountains and returned to Kathmandu by the same Twin Otter aircraft. The take off was as exhilirating and terrifying as the landing had been and most definately one of the biggest highlights of the trip. The plane edged up as far as it could to the wall at the top of the run way and then it was full throttle down and downward sloping runway that just dropped off a mountain. The plane didn't actually have to point upwards or gain altitude, it just glided off the end of the runway and we were flying!

Having been blessed with good weather for the whole trip, we arrived back in Kathmandu by 9am with a nice full day ahead of us. First stop was a good shower as we had only had the opportunity for 2 showers in the past 2 weeks. We did copious amounts of laundry, collecting our Indian visas and air tickets and had a huge pizza for lunch as we are completely sick of dal Baht, rice and noodles. In the afternoon we took a taxi to the suburb of Patan, 5km outside of Kathmandu where we saw the stunning Newari architecture of Patan's Durbar Square (UNESCO world heritage site) and wandered the tiny, old, narrow streets and markets. It was a fitting end to our time here in Kathmandu. This evening we will be going for a meal at the 'Rum Doodle' restaurant which is where the base camp trekkers and Everest Summitters eat and drink (... they get to eat and drink for free for a lifetime) and the walls are adorned with their signatures and comments.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Nepal and take a 2.30pm flight to Varanasi, India where spend our final two weeks before heading back to the UK. It is nearly the very end of our 13 month trip and we are filled with mixed emotions. We look forward on one hand to the home comforts, good food and wine, nice clothes and doing normal things but on the other we will miss the excitement and the liberation of being totally free and seeing and experiencing so many different and wonderful cultures.

Kathmandu

2009-02-06T13:32:00.012Z

On Tuesday morning we said goodbye to South East Asia. We flew 3.5 hours from Bangkok to Kathmandu for the start of a month in Nepal and India. We were so excited to be finally going to Nepal. As we started our descent into Kathmandu's tiny airport we could see huge snow-capped mountains perched high above the cloud level. As we approached the landing strip, the city came into view and what a marvel it was... it was a legoland of derelict buildings and shacks, dust and dirt made colourful by the multitude of washing hanging from the buildings. At the airport, we queued for 45 minutes to obtain a tourist visa, collected our bags and in the arrivals hall the onslaught began ..."you want a taxi"... "where you want to go"..."tell me what you're looking for"... "you want a hostel"..."what is your name"..."why you not talk to me".."where you from" etc etc. The guesthouse we had booked sent a taxi to pick us up and we eventually found a young man holding paper with our name on it. Our taxi was a tiny, rusty, dirty little car that whizzed us 6km through the narrow, unmade roads into the Thamel area of Kathmandu.

Kathmandu makes Vietnam and Cambodia and even parts of Bolivia look developed! The narrow streets are filthy, chaotic and congested with pedestrians, traffic and shops which spill onto the road. The city almost looks like one big building site with piles of rubble and rubbish and filthy, worn out dwellings that make you feel you have been transported back to medieval times. It is quite a sight to behold and both fascinating and daunting all at once. We checked into our guesthouse which was pretty dark and dingy and our room was as basic as they come. We had a door that would not close properly and our sheets and pillows (although they smelled ok) were full of stains. There was no heating, our lights didn't work, we had only one old towel between us and no loo roll to top it all off! It was not a great start!

We left our bags and headed out to explore. The streets are lined with shops selling handicrafts, books and fake North Face trekking goods (amusingly called 'North Fake' by the locals), restaurants, cafes and tourist agencies. We found it all a bit claustrophobic at first, a bit like being in a labyrinth. Thankfully there are only too many tuk tuks willing to relieve you of some money and take you back to your hotel and for once we were actually glad to have this service on hand! We immediately noticed an exceptionally higher ratio of men to women around the city. They really stared at us as we walked past and it felt a bit creepy at first. Within our first half an hour of walking around the city we were pestered and followed by a strange man who left us feeling frazzled and Bi was ready to leave Kathmandu, suffering quite a bit from culture shock. We didn't venture too far around the city for the rest of the day as we felt a little weary. It also didn't help that there were not a lot of other tourists around.

We had pizza for dinner and by 7:30pm we were back in our hostel having had quite enough for the day. It was absolutely freezing and we were both not too happy as our hostel did not feel very secure. We decided to bear it for one night rather than lug our bags and valuables around in the dark trying to find somewhere else. Not long after we returned, our room and the buildings around us were plunged into darkness. We learned that due to water shortages, electricity is restricted to certain times of the day (a total of 8 hours in a 24 hour period in fact). We had a candle near our bed which we lit but it was all enough for one day so we decided to climb into bed fully clothed and sleep it all off. We slept in our sleeping bag liners and woolly hats in order to avoid direct contact with the stained sheets.. yuk!

We were up super early on Wednesday morning and found a room in the Kathmandu Guesthouse around the corner. It is set back off the main street, behind gates with security and has a pleasant garden to relax in. It is worlds away from our previous hostel and has a much better feel to it. Checking out of our dingy hostel was no easy feat as the owner was annoyed and made it very difficult for us to leave, becoming increasingly confrontational. In the end we decided it wasn't worth risking anything so we paid him for the 3 nights we had booked, even though we were not obliged to. We walked 1 minute around the corner to our new hotel and it was an immediate relief to be somewhere decent and it has totally changed our experience in Kathmandu. We dumped our bags and headed out for our second attempt at walking around Kathmandu.

Our first port of call was the Indian Embassy where we stopped in for an hour to submit our passports for an Indian Visa. From the embassy we walked to Durbar Square, the central square of the old town and a UNESCO world heritage site. Whilst very impressive we were both still on high guard, still trying to get used to our surroundings. The square is actually made up of 3 loosely connecting squares, all with large towering pagodas and decrepit stone temples which we wandered around, soaking up the frenetic atmosphere. We walked back via the crumbling old town where we saw lots of street vendors selling fruit and hot sweets from their stalls. We returned to our guesthouse and sat on the lawn in the sun and relaxed in what felt like a small haven amidst the chaos of the city!

By Thursday morning we had acclimatised to our surroundings and were starting to really enjoy Kathmandu and soak up the atmosphere for what it was. We decided to venture out to some of the sights further afield and started the day by hiring a rickshaw from outside our guesthouse to take us up to the Buddhist temple of Swayambunath, perched on a 350m high hill some 3 km west of the city centre. After a good bit of bartering, our rickshaw rider pedalled us along a very dusty, bumpy road which crossed a filthy, large river before heading uphill towards the temple. The rickshaw rider was unable to pedal us uphill so Ash had to jump off and help push; this highly amused the local onlookers! On arrival we climbed the steep stone stairway to the temple and watched the monkeys swinging in the trees around us. Swayambunath is known locally as the Monkey Temple and it is easy to see why... there were hundreds of them everywhere! The temple was quite impressive with an enormous white domed stupa in the middle surrounded by the traditional Buddhist prayer wheels. Prayer flags hung from the stupa across the hill. From our elevated position we also had good views across the city, albeit a little hazy from the pollution.

We returned (this time downhill and no pushing) back to our guesthouse for some lunch and then haggled the hire of a taxi for the afternoon to take us out to some of the sights to the east of the city. Whatever price they give you just have to halve it and start from there!! We drove to the Nepal's most important Hindu temple, Pashupatinath and upon arrival were bombarded by many persistent, would-be guides who we eventually managed to discourage. Pashupatinath is situated on the banks of the Bagmati river, a holy Nepali river equivalent to the Ganges in India and the site has a number of temples and terraces running down to the waterside. Like the Ganges, we learned that the temple is a very popular place to be cremated. As we walked to the riverfront through the stone temple we saw may stone platforms (called Ghats) lining the bank which are used for open cremations. Wood pyres were smouldering away on some of them and as we walked a van parked next to us and a body was brought out on a stretcher. The body had been mostly wrapped in cloth and adorned with flowers... we walked to a respectful distance and watched as the family brought the body to the water and washed the feet before saying prayers, waving incence over the body and then taking the body to the pyre. It was very interesting and not in the least bit grisly (as it might sound), but we did leave before the body was burned, we both decided it was something we didn't really have to see. After the cremation, the family push the ashes into the river. We could see children in the river panning for any jewellery which may have fallen from the cremated bodies.

From Pashupatinath we walked 20 mintues through quiet, open streets and past small paddy fields to Kathmandu's most famous landmark, the Bodnath temple and home to Nepal's considerable population of Tibetan exiles. The walk provided a fascinating glimpse into Nepalese daily life. The huge stupa of Bodnath is very impressive and is surrounded by small, well maintained shopfronts that give the area almost a village feel. We followed the Tibetans walking clockwise around the stupa and had a drink on a rooftop balcony overlooking the area. It is the most peaceful place we have found so far and we enjoyed soaking up the much needed tranquility. We returned to our guesthouse and relaxed for the evening, now having a much better feel and understanding for Nepal and the local people. We are actually starting to really like it here with one exception, the constant spitting in the street... real throaty spitting that is disgusting and is driving us absolutely mad! We asked one of the locals why they do it and he said it's just a habitual thing.

On Friday we negotiated with a taxi to take us to the medieval town of Bhaktapur, some 40 minutes east of the city in the Kathmandu valley. We both got a little nervous as we drove past miles of bumper-to-bumper buses coming into the city full of protesters waving flags. Nepal has frequent rallies and strikes but fortunately it was the last we saw of them. We arrived at Bhaktapur and after shaking off more would-be guides, we walked around the quiet, peaceful city. It was such an interesting place. The old city centre is off limits to most traffic (bliss!) and a UNESCO world heritage site. We walked through the picturesque medieval town square dotted with stone temples and walked down to Taumadhi Tole square where we admired the tallest temple in the valley, the Nyatapola temple. We spent several hours wandering the quiet, pretty backstreets, stopping in at a local paper merchants to see paper being handmade from raw lokta wood. We left with a beautiful handmade pack of playing cards and some paper for Bi's mum to use in her cardmaking. At some point a local 14 year old boy decided to follow us and he seemed to enjoy practising his English as he had been learning at school but we later found that he wanted us to buy him books! We walked to the next square, Tachupal Tole to see more temples and old stone buildings before returning to Taumadhi Tole where we enjoyed a drink in a cafe at the top of a pagoda overlooking the square. We returned to Kathmandu via a different, quieter road and relaxed for the afternoon. A slightly dodgy breakfast yesterday had left us both struggling with our stomachs a bit (despite taking all precautions!) and Bi had to hit the antibiotics within just 3 days of being here, so we rested up for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we will join our 15 day organised trek into the Himalayas and up to Everest Base Camp, so this will be our last post for 2 weeks.

Siem Reap, the Temples of Angkor and Bangkok

2009-02-05T13:19:00.024Z

On Friday morning we took a 6 hour bus to Siem Reap, arriving in the mid-afternoon. At first sight the town appeared to be nothing less than a dirty dustbowl and our hearts sank! However, we were on the outskirts and had to take a tuk-tuk into the town centre where we were relieved to see a slightly more developed town. After settling into our hostel we wandered into the touristy town centre and looked around the market, selling the usual tourist tack. That evening we ate dinner at a quirky restaurant called the 'Dead Fish Tower' which had many different open wooden levels inside where you sat on cushions on the floor and ate your meal. There was also a live crocodile pit. It was a shame the Thai food didn't match the atmosphere!

The following morning, Saturday, we were up early and hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us on a tour around the temples of Angkor. A huge UNESCO World Heritage site, the temples of Angkor were built between the 10th and 12th centuries and are spread throughout the jungle outside of Siem Reap. They are considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world and they did not disappoint, despite the hefty $40 entry fee each! As we approached the entrance, elephants came plodding through the main gate which really set the scene for the day ahead.

To start, our driver Sumat took us into a huge temple area called Angkor Thom which houses some of Angkor's most important monuments. Our first stop was the Bayon, the King's state temple which rises from the centre of the Angkor Thom compound in a cluster of beautiful stone conical towers. Carved into almost every stone wall are huge, smiling stone faces of the 10th Century king, and we climbed the steep steps of the central tower for views of the temple and surrounding jungle. From the Bayon we walked north and around the Baphuon, a huge 3 tiered temple pyramid before strolling along the 350m Terrace of Elephants where stone marching elephants are carved. We finished by walking the Terrace of the Leper King.

From Angkor Thom we headed east, wandering the smaller, quieter but no less beautiful temples of Thommanon, Chau Say Tevoda and Ta Keo before we stopped at Ta Prohm. The temple is stunning, having been nearly engulfed by the jungle, and was Ash's favourite! It is a series of dark galleries and pillars held together by gigantic tree roots and the experience of walking through the ruins was extremely atmospheric. It felt like something straight out of the Indiana Jones movies! From Ta Prohm we visited the huge lake where the King used to bathe before heading around to see the area's highlight, Angkor Wat. It was baking hot by this point so we were really grateful of the cool breeze we had when being driven around in our open sided tuk tuk.

We arrived at Angkor Wat at lunchtime, which was perfect as the site was devoid of the usual noisy tour groups. Angkor Wat was built in the 11th century and even though we were almost 'templed out' it was a real feast for our eyes. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a wide moat and enclosed by a huge wall, and the centrepiece of the temple are five magnificent stone towers. The temple is the national symbol of Cambodia and a source of enormous pride for the people and it is easy to see why. We wandered through the huge stone hallways and courtyards, admiring the stone bas-reliefs that had been so intricately carved nearly 1,000 years ago, and took in the great views from around the outside of the towers. Having been on the go for nearly 8 hours we returned to Siem Reap mid-afternoon and relaxed for the rest of the day, enjoying an authentic Khmer meal that evening.

On Sunday morning we met our tuk-tuk driver Sumat again to spend a day exploring the more distant, remote temples. We drove north for nearly two hours to Kbal Spean, passing through small, rustic villages, open farmland and along some seriously bumpy and dusty roads. In our little open-sided tuk-tuk we were exposed to all the elements and it became so dusty we had to share a bandana to breathe through! After fishtailing around in the deep, sandy drive up to Kbal Spean we arrived safely and our driver was in need of a rest! We walked 30 minutes along a sandy, uphill path through thick jungle to reach Kbal Spean, the skilfully carved river bed, known as the 'River of Thousand Lingas' for the thousand phallic shapes that have been carved into the river bed. The river flowed over many other beautiful carvings and cascaded in a waterfall. It was amazing to us that anybody had found this place as it was buried so deep in dense jungle. We returned to our tuk-tuk and headed back towards Siem Reap to see Banteay Srei, the 'Citadel of Women' which is the most ornate of all the temples we have visited. Although tiny in comparison to the other temples, it has the most detailed, intricate carvings and every doorway, lintel and wall is absolutely beautiful.

From Banteay Srei we stopped in at the small Cambodian Landmine Museum which has been set up by an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier in an effort to raise money to remove landmines from Cambodia and to educate about the terrible effect they are still having today. During the Khmer Rouge regime and Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of landmines were placed across the country and they are still killing and maiming hundreds of farmers, field-workers and children today. Inside the museum, there was a glass cage containing thousands of different landmines, all found and defused by the owner of the museum. There is a small orphanage at the back of museum for the children who have lost their parents because of landmines. From the museum we headed to our final temple for the day, Preah Khan, and climbed to the top for views across the temple and the surrounding jungle. We returned back to Siem Reap and that evening dined at the same Khmer restaurant we had eaten at the night before as the food was so good (and so inexpensive!).

On Monday morning we were up at 6am and after checking out of our hostel took a taxi 180km west to the border with Thailand. The taxi was a beaten up, old car and before leaving the driver filled up with petrol from a hand-operated pump and stopped in to fill the tyres with air... we were grateful for the safety check! The road was largely unmade, dusty and very bumpy, but this didn't stop the driver from racing along at breakneck speed and we arrived safely at the border town of Poipet after three hours. After a long queue to cross the border into the small town of Aranya Prathet we took a tuk-tuk to the main bus station and jumped on a bus to Bangkok that took 4 hours. In Bangkok we took another bus back to the Bangalamphu area, where we started our time in Asia 5 weeks ago. We found a small, if slightly dingy hostel and enjoyed a Pad Thai from a local food vendor before treating ourselves to a 1 hour Thai massage. After the long travelling it was much needed!

Today is our last day in this part of Asia as tomorrow we will take a flight to Kathmandu to begin the next leg of our trip through Nepal and India.

Phnom Penh

2009-02-01T09:45:00.008Z

On Thursday morning we were up early and hired ourselves a Tuk Tuk driver to take a tour of the major sights in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Our driver took us 13 km out of the city centre to our first stop, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where tens of thousands of civilians were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. We hired a guide to learn a little more about this dark period of Cambodian history. Between 1975 and 1979 Cambodia was subjected to a brutal and unimaginable social experiment by a corrupt and evil government called the Khmer Rouge. Under the direction of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge implemented a 'Maoist Agrarian Revolution' whereby anyone with an education was exterminated so that only a poor, uneducated workforce remained. In three years, nearly 2 million Cambodian men, women and children were tortured and executed, effectively reverting the country back to the Stone Age.

On arriving at the Killing Fields, the area seemed remarkably quiet and peaceful, and looked like a large grassy area with a tall memorial stupa in the middle. As our guide took us through for a closer look, we saw that the grassy areas were actually mounds of mass graves. The paths we walked on between the graves still had human bones and clothes embedded in them, slowly being washed out by the rain. Around the area were trees where speakers were hung to play music at high volume so as to drown out the screaming of victims. We saw mass graves for women and children and the many sickeningly inventive ways the Khmer Rouge soldiers used local farming machinery and trees to torture and execute the people because they did not want to waste their bullets. The stupa in the centre, whilst beautiful from a distance, actually contained inside a glass tower full of 8,000 human skulls. The whole experience was very disturbing and sombre, but at the same time was remarkably dignified and peaceful. What we couldn't get over on our visit were the huge number of butterflies flying around the mass grave areas... to us, it was almost a symbol of peace for these people. Whilst we find visiting these places quite upsetting, they have huge historical significance and it has been extremely educational because neither of us really understood what happened here in Cambodia before our visit. It has given us a better understanding gives and it has had such an impact on us as well as providing a stark reminder of how very very lucky we are.

From the Killing Fields, we headed back into the city centre to visit the Tuol Sleng prison museum which was a former high school used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S21) by the Khmer Rouge. We spent a few hours walking through the many cells, seeing hundreds of picture taken of the innocent people who where tortured by the Khmer Soldiers in the prison before they were sent to the Killing Fields. After the museum we headed back to our hotel to grab our bags and check into another hotel in the riverfront area. We had lunch, then in the searing heat we walked to the Royal Palace to wander the grounds, temples and Silver Pagoda. By late afternoon we were so hot and grubby that we decided to wander back to the hotel to sit in the air conditioning for a while. We made the most of having a window and a breeze and hand washed all our clothes and hung them in the window so that it looked like a gypsy site! In the evening we wandered out for a Thai meal. As soon as we set one foot outside the hotel door, we were bombarded with the usual 1,000 offers to take a tuk tuk! Phnom Penh as been a pleasant surprise to us. Many travellers we had spoken to while travelling through Vietnam had referred to the city as 'the armpit of Asia'. To the contrary, we have actually found Phnom Penh to be an interesting place and not at all as bad as it had been described. Within one day, we have found the Cambodian people to have a more pleasant and genuine nature as compared to our experiences with the Vietnamese people.

Tomorrow we take a 6 hour bus to Siem Reap, our final stop in Cambodia and the location of the Temples of Angkor.

Saigon, the Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta

2009-01-29T11:06:00.017Z

On Sunday morning we wandered the Danang waterfront, stopping for a coffee in an overpriced cafe. We headed back to our hotel mid-morning and took a taxi to the airport where, after a 1.5 hour delay, we boarded our Vietnam Airlines flight to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City). Saigon can only be defined as chaotic and heavily polluted with motorbikes everywhere. There is little in the way of defining architecture; it is really just another city ... a concrete jungle and a lot less developed than we were expecting with the buildings taking on that typical half finished, slightly decrepid look.

After sharing a taxi ride to the centre with some other backpackers, we dumped our bags and headed out to check out the local area and find a reputable travel agency to book our passage into Cambodia (via the Mekong River Delta). It was Chinese New Year's Eve the day we arrived (also celebrated in Vietnam) and which is followed by a 3 day 'Tet' public holiday and the hotel and some travel agencies were telling us that everything would be closed for the next 4 days. Not good news for our overland trip through Cambodia and into Bangkok for our flight to Kathmandu by Feb 3rd. Thankfully, the information we were given was inaccurate. We have learnt that people will give you information to suit themselves. Some of the agencies were closing for the holiday and we suspect they were misleading us in order to get us to defer our departures so that we would book with them!

We had dinner then waited for midnight to see in the Chinese New Year and watch the fireworks with the locals and other tourists. Even more memorable than the fireworks was the number of mopeds stopped on the wide streets in front of us to watch the fireworks..... there must have been thousands of them, some with their families piled onto the back including tiny babies. It is a sight you would never ever see in the Western World. Saigon has over 3 million mopeds flying around the streets and boy do we know it! The air was thick with the exhaust fumes and you take your life into your hands everytime you try and cross a the road. You have to just step out and let the the bikes weave around you as you make your way across. By the time the fireworks had finished we both had burning eyes and our clothes stank. That said, it was absolute sheer madness seeing and hearing the thousands of mopeds moving off like a stampede!

On Monday we were up early and took a tour 60km north to see the Cu Chi tunnels (with the obligatory 40 minute stop at the tourist tack shop!). The Cu Chi tunnels are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels and were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War. They were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. We began by watching a short documentary about the tunnels, which gave an interesting insight into the war from the Vietnamese perspective before walking to see the various animal traps and pits that the Viet Cong set to trap American GIs. We then entered one of the tunnels, dug at 3 different levels, of 3, 6 and 9 metres through a section of them we were exhausted and dripping in sweat... amazing to think people lived in them for 21 hours a day.

We returned to Saigon at lunchtime and in the afternoon we walked through the city to visit the War Remnants Museum, dedicated to the memories of those who fought in the Vietnam War. We had been told the museum was closed by all the tourist agencies but thought we'd check ourselves and it was open. The museum was very educational but very harrowing; a stark depiction of the brutality of warfare. There were displays and photos in the museum that we had never seen the likes of before. Some were quite gruesome and Bi found it very hard to deal with and burst out crying in the museum. It is shocking and upsetting to see the barbaric treatment of another human being in such graphic form and to see people's facial expressions, women and children especially, in photos taken just moments before they were killed. Particularly disturbing also was a tank of preserved foetuses which had been horrifically deformed by the US use of chemical Agent Orange during the war. It was upsetting but an all too important lesson in the pointlessness of war.

From the Museum we walked to the Reunification Palace, a rather drab 1960's building which has been preserved as it was when the communist North Vietnamese Army tanks smashed through the gates in 1975, signifying the reunification of North and South Vietnam. With the major sights of the city done, we headed back to our hotel area for an ice-cream and to get out of the scorching heat!

The following day, Tuesday, we began our 2 day trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia via the Mekong River Delta. The Mekong is a huge 2,700 mile long river, flowing south from Northern China through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia before forming a huge delta in southern Vietnam. A trip on the delta is considered a highlight in Vietnam. We got on a rather old and cramped bus at 8.30am (after fighting for our seats!) and were driven 4 hours west to the small town of Cai Be. Here we boarded a motorised canoe and cruised down one of the delta's branches to see the local production of rice paper, puffed rice and coconut candy which was clearly put on for the tourists but interesting nevertheless. The slow journey along the river was fascinating for the rickety wooden shacks that line the banks of the river and for seeing the local people going about their everyday lives. We finally had before us the scenery we expected from Vietnam. Our boat took us onto the main river and after a brief stop for lunch we sailed on to the town of Vinh Long where we disembarked and met our bus for a 4 hour drive to our destination for the night, the small town of Chau Doc. In Chau Doc we checked into the hotel reserved by the tourist agency and were given a room with a ''fake'' window.... it opened up onto a brick wall which was pleasant.. not! The town was quite rustic so it was bit of challenge finding somewhere to eat that looked like it might be kind to our stomachs. As per usual here in South East Asia, the town was buzzing with people and street vendors until late.

The following morning, Wednesday, we had a 6am start and after breakfast we walked to the riverfront where we transferred onto a small wooden canoe. An older Vietnamese woman then 'rowed' us down the river and through a floating village, essentially a collection of houseboats (and by that we mean higgeldy piggeldy wooden shacks actually built so they sit on top of a boat) and floating buildings. The inhabitants were busy doing their washing and bathing in the river and some were even drinking the river water which was brown and filthy. The same water would probably do us some very serious harm! We came back to shore to walk around a small muslim Cham village before transferring onto a small boat that was to take us up the Mekong river and into to Cambodia. The journey was fascinating as we saw real life on the river as opposed to a show put on for the tourists. The scenery changed from rice paddy fields as far as the eye could see to jungle but consistently all the way along people were coming down to the river from their small, crooked wooden houses to fish, bathe (with their cattle at some points!), wash their clothes or to swim and cool off. The people live in such poor conditions that it makes you feel guilty about the luxuries you take for granted every day. After 3 hours we reached the Cambodian border and after formalities we transferred to a very narrow and uncomfortable boat where we sat on a wooden bench for the next 3 hours to Phnom Penh. At the end of our boat journey we peeled our aching backsides from the bench and boarded a minibus that took us the final 35km into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Hue, Hoi An and Danang

2009-01-22T10:55:00.027Z

We were up at 4.30am to catch a 1 hour flight from Hanoi down the Vietmanese coastline to Hue, in the centre of the country. We flew with Vietnam Airlines and had no idea what to expect but they weren't bad at all! We took a transfer to our accommodation in the centre of the town and were told we had been upgraded to a 'deluxe room'.. yipee! Our room was on the 4th floor, nice and big and had a balcony overlooking the town, however, it was so damp and musty and the sheets on the bed smelled strongly of mould. Bi's face said everything but we had read on many travel reviews that this was quite common here so changing to another room or even hotel wasn't likely to make much difference. We opened up every window and the balcony doors and put on the air conditioning and thankfully the room became a lot more tolerable! We dumped our bags and headed out into the city for some breakfast. Although a million times quieter than Hanoi there were still millions of motorbikes zipping around and tooting their horns.

After breakfast we crossed the river and walked to the Old Citadel in the heart of the city which is a UNESCO world heritage site. From the chaos of the surrounding streets we walked into the comparatively empty and peaceful citadel. We spent several hours wandering the deserted gardens and ceremonial halls of the old emperors which was quite impressive and most importantly a well needed restbite from the chaos just outside! From the relative peace of the citadel we headed to the Dong Ba market selling the conical hats that the local women wear in Vietnam and lots of other tourist tack. We got hassled so much that we left after 5 minutes! We were also pretty shattered by this point having been up so early so returned to our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day watching cable tv in our nice, big, damp room! Within minutes, our clothes had absorbed the wonderful mouldy smell of the bed covers.. it was bliss... NOT! We didn't do too much in the evening, just had dinner and wandered the town which is made up of mainly restaurants and souvenir shops. Anyone can set up shop or a food stall here and you commonly see the locals sitting on the pavement or at makeshift tables eating meals which are made by ladies on the street.

On Wednesday we took a dragon boat trip along the Perfume River and hopped on and off at the various tombs of the Nguyen dynasty emperors. We boarded a nice big dragon boat for 25 people and with only 16 of us on the boat it looked like we might have a nice spacious trip. However, in true Vietnamese 'never give anything for free' style the boat owners (they are operated by families who also live on the boat) made us change boats and crammed the 16 of us onto a tiny, narrow boat that had a maximum speed slower than our own walking pace! We sat on our garden chairs and set off up the river where for the first 15 minutes the owners tried to sell us drinks and souvenirs over and over again! We were next handed menus (with restaurant prices) to place our lunch orders which the owners cook for you on the boat. We all actually had lunch included in the price of our boat ticket but the boat operators sneakily pass a menu around in hope you order 'extra' food and pay them more money! We have noticed that the Vietnamese can be quite sneaky and mercenary when it comes to money and we have had to be careful not to be trusting. They are also seem to be very mistrusting towards us..... they don't miss a trick and it can be rather tiresome.

The scenery along the banks of the Perfume River ( a lovely muddy brown river!!!!) is not particularly beautiful but watching the local river life is quite interesting. We saw one woman bent over her boat, washing her hair in the river as her husband rowed past us. Some of the conditions that people live in, on tiny wooden boats is beyond belief and a millions miles from how our life is. To see the babies and small children sat balanced on the edge of boats is always a sight to see as it would never be done in the western world. We chugged slowly down to our first stop, the iconic 16th Century Thien Mu Pagoda picturesquely situated on a hill. On display within the complex was the car made infamous in the photo of the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc who burned himself to death in Saigon to protest against the persecution of Vietnamese Buddhists. From this pagoda we headed further upstream and took a 2km ride on the back of a motorbike to the Tu Duc tomb where the main Emperor of Hue is buried. The tomb complex was peaceful to walk around but was more like a temple than a tomb, with several oriental buildings and a small lake. Nobody actually knows where the emperors tomb is located on the site. We returned back to our boat by motorbike and where the motorbike drivers 'demanded' a beer from the local store as a tip (in addition to payment) for the 2 minute ride. Ash refused but his driver picked up a beer and drove off leaving him with the stall holder asking for payment. We haggled begrudgingly down from 40,000 to 20,000 dong (about 80 pence) for 2 beers. In hindsite we should have just said 'no' on principle as by letting them get away with it we only encourage them. We have no problem tipping where it is deserved..... these guys were just greedy and unpleasant.

Next stop was the small women's pagoda which wasn't particularly interesting so we sat on the banks of the river to wait for our lunch to be set up on the boat. The owners had set up mats on the floor and laid out bowls of rice, tofu and vegetables and a cold drink.... which of course turned out not to be free... it was the usual trick of putting something in front of you as if it is included and then stinging you for it afterwards. We live and learn and will be asking "how much" before we take or use anything! After lunch we returned to Hue via the Minh Mang tomb which is a very pretty and peaceful complex with a huge lake and ornate oriental buildings. It was our last stop for the day as we were all completely 'templed' out. We made the slow journey back to Hue and arrived back late in the afternoon.

The following morning, Thursday, we took a tourist bus from Hue to Hoi An; a journey of approximately 80 miles but which took 3.5 hours. Travel here is very slow and transport is not particularly easy or frequent. True to form, the bus was 1.5 hours late leaving Hue and after driving only 45 minutes it laughably pulled in for a 40 minute break at one of those tourist cafes where there are a million staff members waiting out front with big smiles because they expect you are going to spend all your money in their shop. Most people on the bus were less than impressed and did not go inside! You can complain about these things but it falls on deaf ears here! We finally arrived into Hoi An in the early afternoon and as luck would have it, the bus drop-off was directly opposite our hotel. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel but were so disappointed to find that our room was damp to the point it was almost wet. You could hardly breathe when you walked into it and it was so unpleasant that we decided to find somewhere else to stay. Ash headed out to find a new hotel while Bi looked after the bags. The reception staff were of course less than pleased when we decided to leave and refused to hand back our passports until a full check of the room had been done by security! Within ten minutes we were in a much more pleasant and dry hotel 2 minutes down the road. It was nearly half the price and a hundred times better! We dumped our bags and headed out to check out Hoi An.

Hoi An is an old trading port established in the 15th century, and the central old town is another UNESCO world heritage site. Hoi An lived up to its reputation and more... the city is quaint and beautiful with pretty colonial French architecture and much to Bi's delight there are coloured lanterns hanging up everywhere!! Similar to Chiang Mai, the city has a nice gentle pace to it which is largely to do with its situation on a river and most importantly only a few mopeds! We instantly liked Hoi An and it was a breath of fresh air, both metaphorically and literally! We enjoyed a late lunch on a balcony overlooking the river before walking through the Central Market, which actually functions as a real market rather than being set out for the tourists... we wandered the stalls selling everything and anything: herbs, spices, fruit, vegetables, fish from the river and pig heads and entrails! Ash was pleased with his photo of an old lady beheading fish from the river with a fag hanging out her mouth! From the market we crossed a rickety wooden bridge to the other side of the river and wandered back along the quiet south bank. In the evening we headed out for dinner and went to a recommended French-Vietnamese restaurant called Cafe Des Amis, where we were served 5 huge courses of traditional Vietnamese food. There's no menu and what it served is dictated by what the owner feels like cooking that night! The food was excellent and it was nice to try some things that we might not have been game enough to order otherwise! We returned along the river and Bi dived into the silk oriental lantern stalls that were all lit up along the bank and we returned to the hotel with a bag full.

On Friday we were collected from our hotel just after 8am by another tourist bus (the lack of transport links here makes it difficult to get around independently) and were transported 40km out of the city to the ruins of My Son, another UNESCO site comprising many ruined Hindu temples in a forested valley surrounded by mountain ranges. The site was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War as the VietCong army hid out in the area which at the time was dense jungle.There was one main ruined temple complex surrounded by some smaller ruins, pot-holed with huge bomb craters. The site was interesting but not particularly spectacular and after an hour we had walked the whole site. We returned at lunchtime by bus, disembarking half-way back to finish the journey by boat. Again we were crammed onto a boat which leaned heavily to one side from all the weight in it! We had a gentle hour's cruise back, stopping for 15 minutes at a woodcutter's station to see a workshop and boat-building area. We returned to pretty Hoi An mid-afternoon and found a nice cafe where we treated ourselves to a capuccino and a surprisingly good chocolate fudge brownie! We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and returned back to the waterfront for an inexpensive and very tasty Vietnamese dinner.

This morning, Saturday, was pouring with rain so we didn't venture out of our hostel until midday. The cleaners helped themselves into our room 30 minutes before check-out time to get us out but Ash chased them out so we could finish packing!! They were not happy. We wandered back into Hoi An old town and visited some of the old houses, assembly halls and museums: Quan Cong temple, Tan Ky House and the pretty Japanese covered bridge. Along the way we stopped for lunch at the Cargo Cafe and enjoyed baguettes, cakes and capuccinos! Mid afternoon, we took a taxi 30km to Danang where we will spend the night before flying to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) tomorrow. We have a huge room with big balcony and views over the city and spent the afternoon wandering around the city, markets and along the riverfront. We seem to be the only tourists here which is nice because we are getting a glimpse of real life here in Vietnam.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

2009-01-18T16:23:00.002Z

On Friday morning we had breakfast in Chiang Mai before taking aTuk Tuk to the airport for our 1 hour flight to Bangkok. At Bangkok airport we had four hours to wait until our connecting 2 hour flight to Hanoi in northern Vietnam so we wiled away the time with lunch, planning our Vietnam itinerary and perusing the hundreds of shops in the terminal. We landed at Hanoi airport at 8:30pm and went straight to the Vietnam Airlines desk to book some onward flights for next week to Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. It is so cheap to fly here that in our opinion it is hardly worth the discomfort of a 13-16 hour train or bus journey especially when it is overnight and you see little scenery along the way anyway!

With taxi scams in abundance at Hanoi airport we decided to take a private transfer to the city centre for a whopping $30USD (this is supposed to be a third world country!). After several changes of driver that left us feeling a little nervous we were taken 38km to the city centre to our hotel, smack bang in the old quarter by Hoan Kiem lake. There was a foggy haze to the air and as we approached Hanoi centre it was an instant eye opener. The city has what we would describe as a delapidated French colonial look and it was completely chaotic with people everywhere and narrow roads absolutely jam packed with tooting mopeds crazily zig-zagging all over place. We checked into the hotel, dumped our bags and headed out for dinner at a local cafe.

We were up early for breakfast before heading out in a taxi to the Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum about 2km from the old quarter, one of Vietnam's most revered sites. It is only open for a few hours in the morning so we had to be on time. We were ushered into the huge granite building and quietly walked around Ho Chi Minh's embalmed corpse, which looked a lot like Madame Tussauds had done the designing! It was fascinating to see his actual body as he was such a pivotal character in Vietnamese history. We also then visited the palace and the house he lived in as well as his pagoda on stilts next to a small lake. We also walked around a museum dedicated to his life. After the Mausuleum we took a taxi to the Hanoi Literature Temple, a 10th century university with pleasant courtyards and which is suprisingly peaceful to stroll around considering the chaos of the streets surrounding it. The outside wall of the temple was lined with local men, some very old, sitting cross-legged on the ground and handpainting oriental symbols onto paper. They were beautifully done. We passed one man who had set up a chair and was cutting hair on the street. Ash took a photo and was later chased for a photo fee of 15,000 Dong. He had completely missed the tiny sign above the little mirror saying "take my photo for 15,000"!!

The streets here are a rush of culture in your face and crossing the road is a real challenge. The old quarter is a myriad of narrow lanes crammed to the brim with traffic and gubby looking shops and eateries. Above these are flats with their washing hanging from the windows. It's utterly mad but fantastic.... until of course the pollution gets the better of you. Our eyes were stinging within one hour of being outside! There are endless streams of tooting mopeds on the roads that appear completely lawless and it is the most amusing thing to see. They don't observe traffic signals and they don't even stick to driving on the correct side of the road. .. it is a complete free for all!! We have seen whole families (eg: up to 5 people) crammed onto the back of one moped, tiny babies propped up against the front handlebars which would have the child protection agencies of the western world in a complete tizz. We have seen people carrying trees, doors, up to 7 big water tanks and all manner of things on these tiny vehicles. The streets are lined with shops selling all manner of things that spill out all over the pavement. We especially love the lantern shops as they add so much vibrance to the street. There are woman walking up and down in their traditional Vietnamese conical hats carrying fruits and other goods which hang from a long wooden pole carried across their shoulders. They are constantly trying to put these things onto your shoulder so they can charge you for a photo!

We stopped for lunch before spending the afternoon wandering around Hoan Kiem lake in the city centre and then heading out to see the famous Water Puppet show in the evening. We have to admit that crossing the major intersection to get to the theatre was probably more memorabe than the show!

On Sunday morning we headed 3 hours east to Halong Bay to embark on a 2 day/1 night trip to Halong Bay, a beautiful bay containing over 3,000 limestone karst islands and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We boarded a beautiful Vietnamese junk boat called the Halong Ginger Junk. We decided to splash out and booked onto a 4* junk seeing as this leg of our travels is doubling as a honeymoon! We had a deluxe cabin with queen bed and a marble bathroom and three huge windows. It was luxury! There were 15 people on our boat and amongst them were two famous photographers from New York who had even had their arrival in Vietnam announced in the main newspaper! They were an extremely charismatic pair and great company on the trip. One of the highlights of travelling is the interesting people you get to meet and speak to along the way. So many stories.

As we cruised out into Halong Bay, lunch was served......a 7 course seafood banquet (Bi of course going for the vegetarian option!). The Bay is absolutely beautiful and well justifed as a world heritage site. The waters are a complete flat calm and the area reminded us of a hazy version of the Milford Sound in New Zealand. The serenity and tranquility of the area was such an amazing contrast to the frantic chaos of Hanoi and it was so relaxing! In the afternoon we stopped at Thitop island and climbed 400 steps to the top for 360 degree views over the bay and shortly afterwards we were taken by bamboo raft through a small inlet and cave. The silence of the place was deafening. In the early evening, we visited a small fishing community where all the houses are in the water and floating on empty tanks. There was even a floating school!

We had a five course dinner at our own candlelit table which was lovely and we treated ourselves to a glass of wine each (wine is exceptionally expensive here and usually a bit beyond our backpacker budget). The two photographers we met kindly topped up our glasses from their bottle of wine after dinner and we sat with our wine and had a game of chess. Ash won but only just!!

We were up and on deck early this morning for a Tai Chi lesson but we got bored within 5 minutes and gave up! The boat we are on is so so quiet and overnight when they turned the engine off, it was bliss. We both slept like babies, it was so peaceful out in the bay. We left all the blinds open on our windows and it was lovely to wake up to the sight of the water and hundreds of limescale Karsts dotted as far as the eye can see. After coffee and pastries, we boarded a small launch boat and visited 'Surprise' cave which was an enormous cave over 10,000 sq m and full of rock formations. It was interesting but not particularly exciting. When we returned to the junk and had a traditional Vietnamese brunch (noodles and broth with various condiments) before packing our things and returning to the port for the conclusion of our trip at 11am. We took a minibus back to Hanoi which did the all annoying customary stop at a big tourist handicraft outlet full of absolute rubbish and all at rip off prices!

Back in Hanoi, we decided to soak in the craziness of the city and the pollution and sat drinking a beer from a balcony at the city view cafe. Tomorrow we take a very early flight to Hue where we will spent 5 days in central Vietnam.

Chiang Mai

2009-01-12T13:37:00.015Z

On Sunday morning we left Bangkok and took a cheapy Air Asia flight one hour to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. We had no pre-booked accommodation so we selected a hostel recommended in our Lonely Planet and got a taxi to drop us off in hope that a room might be available... it was and what a nice little find (despite the fact our bed cover is a massive towel!) . We dumped our bags and set out to wander the narrow streets in the old part of Chiang Mai. It is lovely here, so peaceful and quiet, with a very easy-going atmosphere and pace of life.... all so different to the frantic hustle and bustle of Bangkok although there are still zillions of tuk tuk's and mopeds zipping in and around everywhere!! There are many beautiful temples scattered across the town which makes for an interesting combination of ancient and modern.

We had lunch in a local noodle shop (Bi yet again opting for her favourite Pad Thai...while Ash had beef noodles that came topped with a mosquito garnish!) before wandering a small handicraft market near the town gates. The market was full of the usual tourist tack with every second stall selling the same thing making you wonder if anyone ever made any money! There was an area with many different food stands selling noodles, pancakes, meat & fish skewers along with many strange, unidentifiable foods that we have become accustomed to seeing in Thailand (there is nothing they don't eat!!). We took the safe option and tried the banana pancakes before heading to one of the many massage stands and treating ourselves to an open air foot massage!! We selected a seat from a line of comfy chairs situated under a big tarp cover for shade and sat back and enjoyed a 30 minute Thai foot massage whilst watching the market buzz around us. It was heavenly and cost 1 pound each!

We spent the whole evening wandering Chiang Mai's main Sunday market otherwise known as 'Sunday Walking Street'. The main street in town is closed to traffic and literally hundreds of market stalls are erected selling everything and anything from handicrafts to basketware to food. It was a great atmosphere and absolutely jam packed and we spent about 4 hours walking around the streets and stuffing ourselves full trying all the different foods on offer! The local street food in Thailand has been of a very high quality, in terms of both food preparation hygiene and taste. It is much better than we were expecting although it has taken us a little bit of time to get daring with our taste buds... especially Bi who still has a few hang ups from her time in South America!

On Monday morning we were up at 7am for an early breakfast before being picked up by the Thai Farm Organic Cooking School for a 1 day cooking course that we signed up for. We were driven 17km north of Chiang Mai to a local market where we saw the many different types of rice, spices and herbs used in Thai cuisine and watched the making of coconut milk. From here we were taken further out of the city to an organic farm and after a guided walk around the farm (picking different roots and spices for our recipes) we assembled and spent the rest of the day being taught how to make 6 different dishes each. We were each given our own cooking station and the course started with a lesson in making Thai sticky rice and Jasmine rice followed by us making and pounding our own green and yellow curry pastes from the roots and herbs we had picked earlier. We then turned our pastes into a delicious curry (Thai green chicken curry for Ash and yellow Thai vegetable curry by Bi!). Our next lesson was on how to make Tom Yam soup with shrimp and for Bi, Thai Vegetable Soup. This was followed by Tofu Stir Fry with Cashew Nuts for Bi and Tofu with Thai Basil for Ash. At lunch, we all sat outside and ate the dishes we had prepared all morning which were delicious but there was so much to get through. By the end of it we felt we had had our lifetime share of coconut milk!

Our lessons reconvened in the afternoon where Ash cooked Mango with sticky rice and Bi made Bananas in yet more coconut milk. It was delicious but we could not manage more than a mouthful of the stuff! We then finished our day with the most complicated dishes. Ash made Bi's favouite Pad Thai (the idea being he will be making it plenty back home) while Bi learnt how to make spring rolls filled with glass noodles, tofu and vegetables and rolled in rice flour paper .... they were great and clearly a favourite for the day! We went home very pleased with our new found knowledge of 12 Thai dishes and our bellies completely stuffed so there was no need for dinner!

On Tuesday we took an easy day in Chiang Mai, following the old city walking tour in our guidebook and visiting the many different Wats (temples) dotted around the city. We visited Wat Chiang Man, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh before stopping for a western lunch as we could not stomach any more Thai food after yesterday's cooking course. In the afternoon we took a Tuk Tuk to Wat Suan Dok, a pretty temple just outside the city and when we returned to Chiang Mai centre we treated ourselves to a bit of a pamper session with a difference. We headed into a massage parlour operated by ladies who have recently been released from Chiang Mai correctional institute. They are all fully trained whilst still in prison in order to prepare them for making an honest living when they are released. We were a bit dubious at first but breathed a sign of relief when a few more tourists came in soon after us! The girls were actually very friendly and gave a great massage! We both opted for a 2.5 hour Lila Thai Massage which included a full body massage (head, neck, shoulders, back and legs) as well as foot reflexology, a hand massage and finishing with a hot herbal massage. The herbal massage involves large balls of herbs wrapped in muslin cloth which are steamed until they are very hot and then pressed over the body. It was the best part of the whole experience and we walked out very chilled and relaxed.

On Wednesday morning we were up at 6.30am and collected from our guesthouse for a 1 day tour to the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is the very northern tip of Thailand where the three borders of Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos meet and where the opium trade used to be prevalent. We are normally adverse to organised tourist trips but with limited time and slow transport links we decided that it was the best way to see some of the important sights in this part of the country. We drove two hours north and visited the temple, Wat Chedi Luang in the town of Chiang Saen before continuing on to the area called the golden triangle. We took a boat out onto the Mekong river (that flows 600 miles from China through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) to the point where the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos converge before sailing to the Laos side, opposite, and (illegally) entering Laos... to stop at a small handicraft market. Ash sampled the local delicacy, Snake and Scorpion whisky... yes, that's whisky with a whole snake and a whole scorpion inside the bottle for added flavour! He said it was like rocket fuel and Bi was disgusted! They also had Tiger Penis Whisky on offer but Ash declined as he thought it was going a step overboard.

After a brief stop we returned by boat back to Thailand and made a stop for a 'salmonella bar' buffet lunch which we largely avoided! We then headed to the Burmese border to observe the crossing and wander markets. We always find border points very interesting as one country blends into another. There was a slightly more indigenous look to the people especially seeing the women with their babies wrapped in cloth and strapped to their backs. From the Burmese border we headed to the Karon hill tribe village to see the Long Neck tribeswomen. These women from a very young age seemingly stretch their necks to great lengths by wrapping heavy bronze rings around them. In fact all these rings do is push their rib cage down, giving them the illusion that their necks are long. Still, the illusion is impressive! We had both seen these women in National Geographic so it was interesting to see them in real life although with hordes of tourists around it felt a little voyeuristic and to be honest, it wasn't really our thing. The visit to the Burmese border was the highlight of the day for us!! After the village, it was a long and slow 3.5 hour drive along windy roads back to Chiang Mai and we arrived late.

This morning (Thursday) we negotiated the hire of a sawngthaew red taxi (which is like a tuk tuk) up Doi Suthep, a 1,676m peak 16km out to the northwest of the city. We stopped near the summit and wandered one of the most beautiful and sacred temples called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep before getting our driver to return via a small, peaceful forest temple called Wat U Mong. Today is our last day in Chiang Mai and for now, Thailand. Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi in northern Vietnam where we will start two weeks of travel down the length of the country and into Cambodia.

Farewell to Melbourne and Hello to Bangkok

2009-01-09T15:13:00.019Z

On 7th January, one week after our wedding and 5 months after our arrival into Australia we packed up our belongings, reluctantly said goodbye to family and friends and boarded a 9 hour flight to Bangkok for the start of our next leg of travels. We ended our time in Australia the same way as we had started it...enjoying a big roast dinner with the family! We are 10.5 months into our travels and have just 9 weeks left before we have to be back in the UK for work. We cannot believe that our career break is almost at an end as it feels like only yesterday that we set off for Rio de Janeiro on the start of our adventures.

Our next 9 weeks of travel will be a real adventure as we have done absolutely no planning except to book accommodation in Bangkok. We were originally due to fly to Mumbai on 4th January for 9 weeks in India. However, we decided to re-route our travels due to the terrorist attacks last month. At the time we did not know what the repercussions would be and we decided not to take any risks including that of invalidating our travel insurance. With limited alternative options we re-routed our tickets into Bangkok which means our next leg of travel will take us through Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. We also plan to make our way over to Nepal and from there journey overland by bus into Northern India. Our return flight back to London is still from Delhi as we are both determined to set foot in India and visit Varanasi and the Taj Mahal!

We had a smooth flight to Bangkok and arrived just before midnight. It was still 28 degrees at that time of night!! We collected our luggage (it is always such a relief to see your bag appear on the conveyor belt no matter how crappy your belongings are!!) and headed straight to the taxi rank for the 45 minute journey to the city centre. We shared a taxi with a couple staying at the same hostel as us which worked nicely and saved us a few pennies. We have decided to ease ourselves back into the backpackers lifestyle gently and booked a 'flashpacker' style hostel which has slightly more upmarket facilities than the basic hostel and attracts the 30ish traveller as opposed to the 18 year old party types!!! It is in a superb location by all the historical points of interest in Bangkok and the well known Khao San Road where there are loads of restaurants and markets.

After a good night sleep we were up early and ready for the sights of a very congested and polluted Bangkok. We are so excited to be travelling again and we have adapted into our old routine like ducks to water! We started the day with breakfast in the hostel cafe....a rather odd brown porridge with sliced banana and a cappuccino before heading out into the heat armed with our Lonely Planet guide. After navigating our way along crowded pavements and risking life and limb to cross a few roads, our first stop was the Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace which are two of Bangkok's most famous attractions. En route we wandered through the Amulet market which is a maze of tiny alleyways lined with stalls selling millions of different amulets pertinent to the Buddhist faith. Wat Phra Kaew was an awesome sight and we spent 2 hours wandering around various different temples and into one temple that houses the famous Emerald Buddha. The temples are adorned with coloured glass, stones and gold leaf and statues which makes them look very opulent and despite the hordes of tourists it was a really peaceful and tranquil place to wander around.

Next stop was Wat Pho to see the huge reclining Buddha which is 46 metres long and 15 metres high, completely covered in gold leaf and squished into a temple almost the same size as itself. After Wat Pho we made a lunch stop at a western patisserie and had soup served in a bread roll bowl and then soaked up the airconditioning as it was stinker outside. Our next steps took us on a river ferry across the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river to Wat Arun, another temple, where we climbed up the steepest stairs we have ever seen for commanding views out over Bangkok. We stood and admired the views and rested for a while in the cooling breeze feeling exhausted from the heat.

All 'templed out' we made our way back to the hostel in early evening via some of the local food markets... which included delicacies such as stir-fried cockroach! After dinner that night we wandered our local area called Banglamphu where we caught sight of our first 'ladyboys'. There were three of them walking in front of us dressed in short skirts, high heels and wearing handbags. Ash noticed them first but Bi didn't believe him as they had the best legs she'd ever seen! However, on a closer inspection, their huge ungainly feet gave it all away! We wandered along the jam-packed Khao San Road lined with restaurants, stalls of home cooked food that reminded us very much of our time in South America, lanterns, cheap clothes, bags, fake cd's and watches and more. There are Thai massage places everywhere and they are so so cheap. It's only 5 pounds for an hour foot relexology and back massage and so we shall be making the most of it!! Feeling a bit jetlagged and worn out from a long, hot day of sight seeing we retired to the hostel for an early night at around 10pm.

On Friday morning we were up early and after a shabby breakfast we took a taxi (with some hard bartering as they'll take you for a ride... literally) through the heaving Bangkok traffic to Hua Lamphong station where we boarded a rickety old train heading 1.5 hours north to a place called Ayuthaya. Ayuthaya is a popular day trip from Bangkok and was the royal capital of Thailand from the 13th to 17th centuries. The city is covered in temples which now lie in a state of ruin after the city was sacked by the Burmese 200 years ago. The sacred city has been restored somewhat over the last 50 years and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Arriving at the train station we jumped in our first tuk-tuk akin to an automated rickshaw (with more serious bartering!!) and headed across the city to the Historical park. We visited Wat Phra Si Sanphet, one of the most photographed temples in Thailand and famous for its three impressive bell-shapped chedis and spent a while walking around the ruins, soaking up the very peaceful atmosphere... it is so much quieter than busy bustling Bangkok! Next up we walked further through the historical park to visit Wat Phra Mahathat where there is a Buddha head enbedded in twisted tree roots among the ruined temple and across the road to Wat Ratburana. This temple retains one of the best preserved prang towers in Ayuthaya and we were able to climb up and inside the tower which afforded great views over the rest of the city's ruins.

With our thirst for archaelogical sites quenched by early afternoon we jumped back in another tuk-tuk and returned to the train station and headed back to Bangkok. Arriving back at our hostel we freshened up and then we grabbed an early dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant called Ranees where we were invaded by hordes of mosquitos. Bi has become addicted to pad thai and where better a place to get it than here!! After dinner we stopped into a Thai massage centre and treated ourselved to a 1 hour package of foot reflexology massage and a back massage. The masseuses were tiny but very strong and were getting Ash to do all kinds of weird stretches. It was so relaxing and we will definitely be going back for more! Afterwards we wandered the frenetic Khao San Road and headed home late via a street stall selling banana filled pancakes!

Today (Saturday) we had breakfast at a local cafe (because the hostel breakfast is rather dire!!) and then spent the day around Chinatown, Little India and the modern end of Bangkok city which is all shopping shopping shopping!! Instead of a taxi we jumped on a Phraya Express Boat for transport and headed south down the river, getting off at Tha Ratchawong on the edge of Chinatown. We spent the morning walking around the heaving, bustling chinese markets which are fascinating. Shuffling with the crowds down the tiny narrow lanes where the sky is completely obscured and bargains lie in wholesale ambush was quite an experience. We budged and shoved our way past shops and market stalls selling an array of nick nacks, stationery, stickers, stuffed animals, dried fish and some very very weird and unidentifiable food stuffs (you can imagine the look on Bi's face!). We eventually stumbled onto one street dedicated to selling nothing but counterfeit (oh... but of course they are real the vendors tell you) Rolex, Omega and Tag Heuer watches and Oakley, Ray Ban and Police sunglasses!

Next we wandered into the neighbouring district of Phahurat, the 'Little India' of Bangkok. We had a well needed rest and shared a thali at the Royal India restaurant before heading through the Indian fabrics market which was comparatively boring against our morning's fun in Chinatown! We then hopped in a taxi to ultra-modern Siam Square and in startling contrast to the morning had a Starbucks coffee and muffin and walked around one of the huge shopping malls which was brimming with shops selling absolute rubbish and with one whole floor dedicated to mobile pones and fake Ipods!!! Exhausted by the crowds and bored by the endless shops, we jumped on the Sky Train, Bangkok's speedy overland high rail system and travelled to the Saphan Taksin pier where we caught a very busy express boat back to the pier near our hostel in the much more interesting old part of Bangkok. We freshened up then headed out for dinner by the river and enjoyed some more local thai food ( Bi enjoying her 4th bowl of Pad Thai in 3 days!). There is no serving of alcohol today in Bangkok as it is election day... we are hoping it is a peaceful one in light of recent events affecting Bangkok!

Today is our last day in Bangkok as tomorrow morning we take a short flight to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

Sydney, the Blue Mountains & the Hunter Valley

2008-12-05T07:34:00.013Z

In preparations for our wedding, we stumbled upon an advert for a jewellers in Sydney that specialises in personalised 'ring workshops' where you design and make your own wedding rings with a qualified jeweller. There are only a few places in the world where you can do this and after doing some research, we decided it would be really special experience to have made each others wedding rings. We booked ourselves onto a workshop for the 29th November and then in our true 'addicted to travel style' we decided to make a holiday of it in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and around the wineries of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

We took a cheapie flight with JetStar and arrived in Sydney at lunchtime on Friday 28th November. Ash surprised Bi by booking a room in the 5* Westin for 2 nights as it was a special weekend. We have both been earning quite well during our time in Melbourne so we decided to take a break from dorm rooms for once! The room was fabulous and Sydney is such a beautiful city! We strolled through Sydney in the afternoon, ate fish and chips at Darling Harbour and then in the evening we went to see 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical' at the Lyric Theatre in Star City, the Casino. We had front row seats and the show was one of the most outrageous, entertaining and funniest musicals we have seen and it had two characters from the film in it which was a real bonus. The strawberry daiquiri in a flashing red cocktail glass which we drank during the interval was equally as amusing!

The following morning, Saturday, we had a big gourmet breakfast in the elegant Strand Arcade before heading up to the jewellers for our half day ring workshop. We were met by our jeweller who showed us all the different options for designing our rings. We both decided to go for platinum bands (Bi's engagement is also platinum) and after choosing our designs we were provided with an overview of how we would make the rings. Everything was to be done by hand.

We were handed a piece of metal that looked rather like the 'lead pipe' from the Cluedo board game and then started the process of turning this shabby piece of platinum into our wedding rings! We were both responsible for making each other's rings and naturally most of the pressure was on Ash to get Bi's one perfect! Bi on the other hand had the task of making a ring for Ash that was almost big enough for her to wear as a bracelet!! We began by putting the platinum through a mill to elongate the metal, setting the right thickness and width. After this we put the now flattened, straight pieces of metal into a circular vice that bent the metal strips into a ring shape... they looked very crude at this point! We then heated the metal up under a small blowtorch to soften it and then hammered the rings into shape around a conical metal tube. The next step was to saw off the overhanging edge before using melted platinum leaf to solder the two ends of the ring together to form a complete circle. It was exciting to see our rings start to take shape although they still looked incredibly ugly! As instructed, Ash made Bi's perfect! Bi unfortunately had made Ash's wonky and so she had to cut it, rework it and resolder it..oops!

Once both rings were soldered, we took a break and had a nice lunch. We wolfed it down as we wanted to keep going with making our rings. After lunch we faced the very long process of filing and polishing the rings to bring the colour and finish out of the platinum. It felt never ending as we went through numerous different grades of files (which looked a bit like emery boards) before finishing the rings on an electric polisher. The rings were gleaming and almost unrecognisable against the ugly piece of dull metal we first started with. It was very exciting.

The whole process took about 4.5 hours and it was fantastic to be so involved in making each other's rings, especially since we did it all by traditional hand methods. We left the rings with the jeweller to be engraved on the inside with our names and wedding date. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city and Chinatown before returning to collect our rings in the early evening and we celebrated their completion with a glass of champagne. We could not stop opening up the box and looking at them. That evening we had a meal at The Astral, a posh restaurant on the top floor of Star City (the casino), overlooking Sydney Harbour. We arrived a little early for our reservation so we ducked into the casino for 10 minutes and Ash managed to accumulate a few winnings at the roulette table that bought us a very nice bottle of wine at dinner!

On Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and picked up a hire car. We drove out of Sydney and 1.5 hours west to the Blue Mountains, a beautiful forested national park full of deep gorges and with a slight blue haze (given off by the Eucalyptus apparently). We stopped at a lookout over the Wentworth Falls and Jamison Valley before heading onto Katoomba, the chief town of the Blue Mountains National Park to find some accommodation for the night. Katoomba is pretty as Australian towns go and we were hungry when we arrived so we stopped into a tea shop for a cream tea. Disappointingly a cream tea in Australia comes with whipped cream as they don't have clotted cream! Afterwards we had a ramble through the town before setting off to look for accommodation. We found a gorgeous little bed and breakfast called Windradyne with spectacular views across the whole national park and only walking distance to the area's most famous landmark, the Three Sisters which is a formation of three towering sandstone peaks.

As it was a lovely evening we decided to head to the local Coles supermarket and grab a bottle of wine and provisions for a picnic dinner. We sat ourselves on a bench overlooking the Blue Mountains and there we sat and watched the sunset with a bottle of red wine, dips, olives, crusty bread, tomatoes and salad. It was bliss! As the sun set, we packed up and then walked down and around the Three Sisters before heading back to our B&B for some complimentary port (for Ash!) and tea and biccies (obviously for Bi!). That evening Bi forced Ash to sit up and watch a very girly film called 'The Notebook'. His preparation for marriage is complete!

On Monday morning we were up early and took a long 3 hour scenic walk down into and along the gorge floor before taking the world's steepest funicular railway back up to the top. It was indeed steep, so much so that you started the ride lying on your back! We then followed the rim of the gorge back to our accommodation and before driving to the pretty nearby village of Leura. We wandered around the village (with Bi unable to resist the draw of the boutique shops and cafes) before grabbing some lunch and heading 2 hours north to the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's most famous and beautiful wine making regions. Famous for their production of world class Shiraz and Semillon, Ash just had to literally follow his nose and the scent of crushed fermenting grapes! We arrived late in the afternoon and in true 'backpacker' fashion headed to the local tourist information office to suss out the last minute accommodation deals. We chose a place called the Tuscan Resort, slap bang in the middle of all the wineries. That evening we went for a meal at a recommended restaurant called 'Amandas' which was terribly romantic; all candlelit with lovely views across the wineries. Bi was in her element!

By 10am the following morning, Ash was already ahead of the crowds and sampling his first tipple of the day. Today was Hunter Valley wine tasting day and he was wasting no time about it!! We started by visiting Pigg's Peake winery, a tiny boutique winery noted for their outstanding shiraz. The recommendations were spot on and Ash quickly picked up a bottle! Ash has gotten a real taste for good wine whilst here in Oz and is sure to miss it when we return to the UK! After Pigg's Peake we headed on to Tyrell's, a spectacularly located winery with sweeping views over the Hunter Valley hills and vines. The wine was also excellent and after a thorough tasting we decided to splash out and purchase a really excellent bottle of the 2004 VAT 8 Shiraz (but not to be opened for about 5 years!). Next stop was at a small, boutique winery located at the beautiful Peppers Guesthouse.

By midday we had rumbling tummies and decided we had better soak up some of the wine with some lunch. We stopped into the Cheese shop and bought ourselves a picnic of locally produced cheese, bread and olives and on a recommendation, we headed up a long hill to the Audrey Wilkinson winery for a stunning spot to have our lunch. First things first however, Ash completed another tasting and bought yet another bottle of wine before we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed our food with stunning views over the valley. That afternoon we visited Lindemans and Rosemount Estate but found them to be a bit big and unfriendly (not to mention that their plonk wasn't all that good either). Next stop was to Peppertree winery where we tasted some lovely wines. We were gutted to be in a position where we couldn't fit anymore wine into our luggage and so we settled for a very pretty empty bottle that Bi wants to use for her olive oil!!

By mid afternoon we were both very very hot and very tired so we decided to look for another hotel for the night. We headed back to the tourist information office to grab ourselves another last minute deal and sample a different hotel. We found ourselves a lovely room at the Hunter Valley Resort and spent a few hours out of the searing heat watching DVDs in the air conditioning... thank goodness for air conditioning!!. In the evening we had a reservation at the highly acclaimed 'Roberts Restaurant' situated next to the Peppertree winery and which is reputedly the most romantic restaurant in Australia. Wow... it really was very special and the food and service was excellent. The restaurant itself is a lovely old slab cottage dating back 200 years and reminded us of some of the old National Trust cottages we regularly visited back in England. We finished our meal with tea and coffee in the quaint lounge (which smelt like an old library). Bi is completely in love with the place.

On Wednesday, our last day, we said goodbyes to the Hunter Valley and drove 45 minutes north to Newcastle which is where we take our flight back to Melbourne. Newcastle was a tiny and rather unexciting town so we decided to continue driving to Port Stephens, a beach town just north of Newcastle. We wandered the town and had lunch by the harbour before returning to Newcastle to catch our flight back to Melbourne.

Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock) & King's Canyon

2008-11-14T08:22:00.010Z

Early on Tuesday morning (Melbourne Cup Day - 4th November) we took a taxi to Tullamarine airport for our Tiger Air flight to Alice Springs. You can only appreciate the size of Australia by flying over it and what looked like a short hop on the map was actually a 2hr 40min flight over barren and uninhabited desert. On touching down into the small airport we jumped into a taxi to our hotel, the 4* Alice Springs Resort. We were expecting some glamour but it was faded glory and as Ash put it, a bit like an old people's home but it was comfortable! We dumped our stuff, changed into some cooler clothes and then wander across the dried up Todd River and into the town centre. Alice Springs has a population of just 27,000 inhabitants and it was so quiet with a kind of 'Wild West' feel to it. There is a large population of Aboriginals in 'the Alice', something you don't see in Melbourne and many of the other Australian cities. They were all sat in their groups around the grassy areas of the town centre just watching the day go by.

We wandered up and down the main thoroughfare which is a mix of souvenir shops and art galleries selling beautiful aboriginal dot paintings, restaurants and cafes and regular clothes and food shops. We stopped into a cafe for some lunch and then headed to a didgeridoo workshop for a free half hour lesson. We selected our didgeridoo (Bi pulling faces and wiping hers about million times to remove the germs from all the people who had used it before her!!!) and then sat with the instructor who made it all look very easy. It was really quite hard to get a decent sound out of the didgeridoo and to get the hang of circular breathing but by the end of the lesson, Ash was starting to get the hang of it. Bi got puffed out and gave up as most of the time her playing sounded like a 'fart' noise! At the end of the lesson Ash decided he had to have a didgeridoo and where better to buy one than in the Outback! After much debate we decided to invest in a good one and so Ash selected a locally handcrafted 'didge' carved from Bloodwood Eucalyptus. It was almost as tall as Bi and has been posted directly to the UK. It will be a nice surprise to meet up with it, amongst all the other things we have posted during our travels when we arrive back in the UK in March 09. We spent the rest of the day we spent wandering the town and admiring the work in the many galleries.

The following morning, Wednesday, we were picked up at 6am for our 3 day tour to Ayers Rock and the King's Canyon. After roughing it through South America and now earning we had decided to take a more relaxed tour and booked ourselves onto the 'Safari in Style' tour. Our vehicle was a large 16 seater 4WD truck with air conditioning. Funnily enough we were the only native English speakers on the bus besides for our tour leaders.. everyone else was German!

Ayers Rock is actually a 5 hour drive from Alice Springs so we spent the majority of the morning in the truck. It's amazing how barren the centre of Australia is.... after leaving Alice Springs we saw literally nothing but red sand and shrubland for 5 hours. We arrived at Yulara, the name for our accommodation base near to Ayers Rock in time for lunch before heading to the Uluru Cultural Centre to find out a little about the Rock. We then proceeded to drive an hour west to Kata Tjuta National Park where we walked among a group of 36 huge domed red rock formations called 'The Olgas'. We walked to a viewpoint as the temperature pushed towards a blisteringly hot 45oC for some good views before returning to our bus. We then drove to the sunset viewpoint of Ayers Rock and in true style drank a glass or two of champagne as we watched the sun set and the Rock become an ever deeper shade of red. It was a great experience. The Germans were restrained in their drinking so Ash finished off the bottle! After sunset we returned to our 'luxury campsite' in Yulara and were very surprised to find that the permanent tents we were staying in were really quite good... each contained two full-size single beds with mattress, duvet and pillows, clean sheets, a bedside table with lamp and a fan! After all our basic camping in South America it was a treat!

On Thursday we were up at 4am (ouch!) and after an early breakfast we headed back to Ayers Rock for a sunrise viewing and then walked the 9.6km around the base of the Rock. It was a pleasant and pretty walk, improved by the cool morning air which would have been perfect had it not been for the thousands of pesky flies that are common in the Red Centre! Ayers Rock is an huge and impressive monolith and regarded as sacred by the Aborigines. For that reason and for the fact that it was closed because of rising temperatures we decided not to climb the Rock. After an early lunch at Yulara we jumped back in our bus and drove 4 hours north to our accommodation at the King's Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park. We were at another 'luxury campsite', this time with a bar, shop and swimming pool so we spent the remainder of the baking hot afternoon swimming in the pool and eating ice creams. In the evening a delightful cold change came through, lowering the temperature by about 200C and with it came a huge thunderstorm. The sky was lit up with all the lightning and the rain was extremely heavy. It was a genuinely exhilirating experience going to sleep in our tents with the net windows open, able to see and hear the full fury of the thunderstorm overhead.

We were up at 4.30am on Friday and after breakfast we drove to the King's Canyon. With all the rain, the road had severely flooded and at one point had turned into a 60cm deep creek. This was impassable for some of the coaches but as we were in our 4WD truck we plowed through, rock music blaring! We took a 3 hour scenic walk up and around the rim of the King's Canyon, which is an impressive red stone gorge carved by an ancient river. After all the rain the normally dry and dusty river bed was in full flow. It was a beautiful walk with great views. After lunch we packed our bags and returned the 5 hours to Alice Springs, with a short break to view the Mt Connor tabletop mountain. On returning to Alice we were dropped off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel... we had decided to finish our dusty desert trip with a little luxury! After some needed showers, we smartened up and had dinner in a great thai restaurant attached to the hotel. We had a well earned lie-in the following morning before catching our early return flight to Melbourne... it was a great finish!

Wedding Planning

2008-11-01T07:27:00.000Z

With Ash's parents only in Melbourne for 4 days (before travelling onwards) we had a pretty small range of dates to chose our wedding. We finally decided on Sunday 28th December 2008 and with just three months to plan an entire wedding we had to hit the ground running. The decision on where to hold our wedding celebrations was an easy one! We love good food and good wine and we just happen to be in a country that has some of the world's best wine producing regions. So, where better than to celebrate our wedding at a local winery!

We spent the first four weeks of our time in Melbourne scouring the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley wine regions (believe us when we say we left no stone unturned). Bi was chauffeur, venue critic and chief stresser while Ash was chief wine sampler and food critic! Both the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula regions are very beautiful with rolling vine-covered hills scattered with boutique wineries, excellent restaurants, boutique hotels, B&Bs and gourmet food shops. Trying to find the right venue was probably one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make regarding the wedding. We have been quite priviledged to see and do so many fantastic things together this year and so we had some pretty high standards!

We set our hearts on the beautiful Yarra Valley. It is on the doorstep of where Bi grew up and adds a nice touch of nostalgia to the whole occasion! It is also local to all our guests. We visited and revisited De Bortoli, Yering Station, Balgownie Estate, Fergussons Estate, Yarrawood, Helen's Hill, Stones of the Yarra Valley, Domaine Chandon, Badger's Brook, Roundstone, Rochfords Estate, Billanook Estate, Kellybrook Winery, Evelyn County Estate, Panton Hill, Tokar Estate, Tarrawarra Estate, Elmswood Estate and Inglewood Estate. It was on more than one occasion that Ash finished the day a bit tipsy from all the tastings!

After going round and round in circles we finally booked our reception at one of the first wineries we visited..... arrrgh.. after all that!! It is a small boutique winery called Evelyn County Estate on the edge of the Yarra Valley in a place called Kangaroo Ground. It is aptly named because there are so many wild kangaroos in the area. It is about a 15 minutes drive from Bi’s parents house and very local to all our guests. The restaurant serves local, organic, seasonal Yarra Valley produce and is in beautiful, rustic Australian bush setting with views out over the vineyards. Below the winery is a charming cottage called 'The Retreat' set next to a spring fed dam complete with resident ducks, geese and plenty of kangaroos. We will be staying at the Retreat on our wedding night which means we don't have to travel far after the reception. We love the place; it is definitely very us! We were keen not to replicate anything ‘English' and wanted to celebrate in proper 'Aussie' style with gumtrees, vineyards, parakeets, cockatoos, kangaroos and sunshine (hopefully!!!!)........ all washed down with locally produced wine and the sounds of a four piece swing jazz band on a Sunday evening!

With our venue booked we had to decide on where to actually get married..... just a minor detail!!! We decided upon having a celebrant marry us at a local National Trust listed building called Montsalvat. It is a five minute drive from Bi's family home and provides a beautiful, formal setting for our ceremony. The Gallery where we will be married has big stained glass windows and pews so that Bi can have her pew bows!

With the venue and ceremony location secured our next task was to sort out the bridal party, the celebrant, the entertainment, the cake, the cars, the hairdresser, the flowers, the make-up artist..... the list goes on and on and on! Bi very quickly realised the advantage of being the last of her girlfriends to get married and she capitalised on it by using most of their contacts which saved hours and hours of research time. We are very lucky that we have been able to book so much at short notice and can only thank the time of year we have chosen for that!

We are having a bridal party of 6.... 3 groomsmen (Ash's best friend Jez as the Best Man and Bi's two brothers) and 3 bridesmaids (two of Bi's friends and Ash's sister). Bi's mum and her aunty are taking on the huge task of making all the dresses and her Aunty Shireen is a professional photographer (Victorian Wedding Photographer of the Year in fact!) and will be doing our photos so we are very lucky to have many talented people here in Bi's family to help us out.

With such short time scales and given our wedding is just after Xmas at the start of the Australian summer holidays, we had to be early with our invites. Bi selected the paper design and colours (which included some vine patterned paper to tie in with our reception being at a winery), Bi's mum designed and assembled all the invititations and Ash did all the printing of the inserts. It was a real team effort!

We will travel to Sydney in a few days to make our wedding rings with a professional jeweller as well as spend a few days in the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley. We are nearly there!!!

Time in Melbourne

2008-10-24T09:33:00.014+01:00

We have been in Melbourne for nearly 4 months now and what a complete lifestyle change it has been compared to the previous 6 months of our travels. It's been quite an adjustment but the adventures have continued nevertheless. We are currently living at Bi's parents house. It's like Grand Central Station with 6 of us living there but it has been nice to spend real quality time with everyone. Thankfully it's a big house!

When we arrived into Australia we had almost depleted our career break bank accounts after 6 months of not working (mainly thanks to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands but it was well worth it!!) so after a few weeks of relaxing we bought ourselves some interview clothes and started on our quest to find some temporary/contract work. It was a bit depressing having to go out and find work but thankfully we both found work very quickly and it is putting well needed money back into our pockets once again! Bi has a contract audit role in the city while Ash has a complete change of lifestyle and has taken a job at the local garden centre doing all sorts of jobs including help look after the resident Gallahs. He is loving the great outdoors and Bi is very very jealous especially since the nursery has a teahouse attached to it. Bi would love nothing more than to run a little teahouse!

Our time so far has been all go go go! We have been spending lots of time with family and friends, doing some sight seeing and the biggest thing of all..... we have decided make 2008 an even more special and memorable year by getting married at Christmas here in Australia. It is so typically us to fly by the seat of our pants and do something like this off the cuff so it fits perfectly! We never imagined we would set off on a year of adventure and finish it married! Ash's family had already decided they would come out to Melbourne over Christmas so given we will rarely ever have both our families on the same side of the world it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It has also given Bi the chance to plan a wedding on 'home turf' with all her family and closest friends involved and that's not something she could have ever done from the UK. We think it was definitely meant to be!

So far we have spent most of our evenings and weekends sorting out the wedding, visiting Bi’s friends and doing the odd bit of sightseeing and eating out. The lifestyle here is quite a relaxed one…. lots of socialising and eating out and the weather is becoming very nice as we approach summer. A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip out to The Lakehouse, a very nice restaurant in the spa town of Daylesford about 1.5 hours outside of Melbourne. We managed to incur our first speeding ticket. We both stared in disbelief at a letter that stated we were snapped doing 108km in a 100km zone on a motorway. We were fined $140 and 1 demerit point! We could not believe it!

Australian Arrival

2008-08-06T02:19:00.002+01:00

After a 3 hour flight from Christchurch we arrived into Melbourne at 5pm where we were met by Bi's dad. That night Bi's mum laid on a huge roast dinner for us and all the family which after 6 months of travelling was a proper treat (we had been craving a roast dinner!).

We are now in Australia for the next 4 months and the plan is to find some temp work so that we are able to fund some travel around Australia and pay for the next part of our trip; 3 months backpacking through India and Nepal.

Christchurch and the End of New Zealand

2008-08-01T00:51:00.000+01:00

Thursday morning and we woke up to, you guessed it... more heavy rain! After our usual breakfast of porridge we packed up our things ready to leave. Today is our last full day in New Zealand so we said goodbye to our beloved cool box and donated it to some travellers before leaving our pretty little hostel in Akaroa. With all the rain over the past few days the drive to Christchurch was quite treacherous. Along the windy Banks Peninsula road there were many slips and landslides that we had to drive around and in some places there were streams of flood water running across the road. This was something we had come to expect throughout South America, not New Zealand! Despite the warnings of flooding and road closures we made the 1.5 hour drive into Christchurch without problem. En route into the city centre we made an emergency stop after seeing a sign advertising $10 haircuts. 15 minutes later we were back on the road and heading into the small city centre where we found a rather nice hostel with parking . The fact that it had a Robert Harris Coffee shop next door really sealed the deal for us. We were getting low on cash and still had about 50 'buy one get one free' coffee vouchers left to use.

In the afternoon (and buzzing from all the caffeine!) we wandered the Christchurch Arts Centre which is a converted 18th Century college and now a hub for arts, crafts and boutique shops in Christchurch. We then headed into the centre crossing over the River Avon which was lined with weeping willow trees and had a distinctly English feel. We could have even taken a punt down the river, but having done this fairly recently in Cambridge (and not forgetting it was cold and still raining!) we decided to give it a miss. Christchurch city centre is really one main square called Cathedral Square where.. you guessed it....Christchurch cathedral sits. Although it is pleasant, Christchurch is not a particularly exciting city and half a day was plenty of time to wander around. The most exciting thing we did was walk aroud the cathedral and climb to the top of the main bell tower for views over the city. That evening we celebrated our last night with a meal of fresh pasta and a bottle of wine.

On Friday morning (after another free coffee!) we headed to the aiport, dropping off our car en route. Over the past 5 weeks we have driven over 5,500km (3,500 miles) and covered almost all the major sights in New Zealand. Despite some challenging weather conditions we have really enjoyed our time here, moreso on the South Island where the scenery and feeling of isolation is wonderful.

Where we have visited (chronological):

NORTH ISLAND

Auckland

Bay of Islands

Kauri Coast

Rotorua

Taupo

Waitomo

Wellington

SOUTH ISLAND

Abel Tasman National Park

Marlborough Wine Region

Kaikoura

Arthur's Pass

Franz Josef & Fox Glacier

Wanaka

Queenstown

Milford Sound

Doubtful Sound

Catlins Coast

Dunedin & the Otago Peninsula

Mount Cook National Park

Rangitata Valley

Akaroa & the Banks Peninsula

Christchurch

The Rangitata Valley and Akaroa

2008-07-31T05:50:00.011+01:00

We left our little farmhouse early on Tuesday morning and drove north through mountainous scenery to the town of Tekapo, situated on the pretty Lake Tekapo. Here we visited the Church of the Good Shepherd, a tiny chapel perched on a hill in a picturesque spot next to the lake. It was great timing as within 30 seconds of leaving the Church a hoard of school-children and a busload of tourists turned up! From Tekapo we continued north, joining the ‘Inland Scenic Route’ highway before turning left and heading further inland along the Rangitata River Valley. Ash had been busting to see some Lord of the Rings film locations... as of yet we hadn't specifically visited one and this was our opportunity. As we drove along the unsealed, gravelly and pot-mark ridden roads the valley opened up magnificently to wide, flat plains surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains. In the middle of the huge valley was a large roche moutonnee, a rock hill shaped by a glacier, that was used as the set of Edoras in the Lord of the Rings. Ash having watched the film several times got very excited, but Bi amusingly remarked 'What... it's just that hill there?!'. We tried to drive down the valley and up to the hill but it soon became '4x4 only' territory as Ash started to drive through the riverbed! We decided to turn back, parked nearby and walked up to the hill (jumping over a few fences and crossing the odd stream along the way!). It was a stunning location and a worthy trip. From the valley we returned back to the main road and began our 2 hour journey eastwards to Christchurch, our final destination.

After the tranquility and beauty of the countryside over our past few weeks in the South Island we both felt a bit disappointed as we drove into the city of Christchurch. It was 5ish in the evening and we had arrived into Christchurch a day ahead of our schedule. We still had two full days before our flight to Melbourne on Friday. We made a snap decision to skip the city and head somewhere more remote for our last few days. Bi grabbed the guidebook and randomly selected the small seaside village of Akaroa located at the tip of the Banks Peninsula about 85km from Christchurch. What a wonderful decision it was because Akaroa turned out to be one of the loveliest places we have visited and stayed on the South Island. The road to Akaroa was neverending as it sharply twisted and turned its way through steep rolling green hills and through a few remote, pretty villages. We started in daylight on what was a beautiful journey and finally descended steeply down into the seaside village just after dark. We had no accommodation booked and had our fingers and toes crossed that we could find somewhere to stay. There are many places which close for the winter here. The first place we tried had no vacancy so we tried our luck at a quaint and highly recommended little hostel across the road in the centre of the village. Thankfully they had one double room available and it was lovely, just like a charming English B&B so we grabbed it.. not that we could be fussy anyhow! The small hostel is located in a beautiful old colonial house and inside has a cosy little lounge with roaring log fire and well equipped kitchen. It was so quaint and if Bi could have moved in permanently she would have! The hostel and the village has such a lovely feel to it and it hits you immediately. We settled into our room, then starving hungry we cooked ourselves a hearty meal. We finished off the evening with a cup of tea and slab of fruit cake which Bi very happily ate while sat in bed with her hot water bottle and a pile of the latest gossip magazines that she had found on the bookshelf!

We woke the next morning to the aroma of fresh coffee but also to the sound of pelting rain and blustering winds. Both the North and South Islands are currently receiving a battering from exceptionally bad weather at the moment, the north in particular. However, we were so happy in our hostel and to be somewhere so peaceful and relaxing that we didn't mind one bit staying in by the fire most of the day. In fact it was a lovely way to finish a rather non-stop 5 weeks of travelling around New Zealand. We made our breakfast then grabbed a couple of umbrellas and went out for a walk along the village's main street which is lined with little artisian shops, a deli, a couple of grocery stores, a pub and a few restauraunts and a few coffee shops. After touring the shops (Bi naturally doing this in much more detail than Ash) we walked along the shorefront and around the small harbour up to the old lighthouse. We returned to the harbourfront for a lunch of fish and chips which we sat and ate under shelter, shared our chips with some very friendly little birds. Ash had the local blue cod and we shared a big bag of Kumura chips (sweet potato chips) which are the local speciality. With the rain deeply set in, we walked back to the hostel. It was too wet to attempt any of the local walks on offer so we decided to stay cosy and warm and spend the rest of the day by the fire. The hostel was full today so we swapped travel stories with the other guests, played scrabble and Ash even made us an apple crumble. It was a really nice way to spend a rainy afternoon...we absolutely love this place and this village and could happily spend much more time here.

Mount Cook National Park

2008-07-31T04:41:00.006+01:00

After a very comfortable and peaceful nights sleep at the farmhouse we were up early and in the kitchen with the other house guests and the owner cooking our breakfasts and making our lunches. With full stomachs and provisions for the day we jumped into the car and headed to Mount Cook National Park where New Zealand's highest mountain of the same name is situated. The journey took about an hour and with relatively clear weather we had good views of the snow capped mountains in the park... well, all except Mount Cook which was unfortunately still clouded over. On arrival into Mount Cook village we headed straight for the visitors centre to find out which of the many walks were open as some were closed due to heavy snowfall. The alpine village is a tiny place nestled in between the mountains and at this time of year it was exceptionally empty and quiet... just the way we like it! We picked two walks then parked the car and set off. The first walk was called The Red Tarns which took us up a windy, stepped path past the snow line to a viewpoint half-way up Mt Sebastopol. We had panoramic views over the village, the national park and it's beautiful mountains and it soon started to snow quite heavily which was lovely. There is something about snow that turns us both into big kids! We decided to stop a while and eat our lunch at the viewpoint before heading back down a rather icy path back to the village. Once back at the village we decided we wanted to stay out in the snow and so we went on a short walk called Governor's Bush which took us along a windy woodland path.

With the snow continuing to fall quite heavily we decided call it a day for walking and visit the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre which is located inside the Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook village. The centre houses a collection of photos and relics, including a short film documenting the life of Sir Edmund Hillary and his conquest of Everest. There is also information and artifacts on other famous Kiwi mountaineers, all of whom regularly climbed and trained in Mount Cook National Park. Inside there was also a small planitarium and 3D Mount Cook National Park film which was all really very interesting and we managed to while away several hours quite easily.

By late afternoon we decided that we had better make the journey back to our hostel while there was still daylight. The snow was still falling heavily. Back at the hostel we cooked ourselves dinner with Fitzy the dog following our every move and playing all sorts of tricks to get some scraps. We then spent the evening sitting cosily by the fire with the owner watching a DVD of 'George and Mildred' (a 1970's English sitcom that Bi loved as a child).

Tomorrow we will slowly start making our way towards Christchurch which is were we will finish our New Zealand adventures.

The Otago Peninsula and North to Omarama

2008-07-30T04:51:00.008+01:00

On Sunday we packed our bags and headed outside the city of Dunedin for a drive along the Otago Peninsula which juts out into the Pacific. The peninsula is famous for its wildlife such as rare penguins and sealions. Along the way we made our way inland to visit Lanarch Castle, New Zealand's only castle but on seeing the steep entry price we promptly U-turned, as did many others! We drove along to the furthest accessible point on the peninsula which is home to a colony of Royal Albatrosses and affords views over Otago Harbour. A visit to the peninsula is a highly recommended thing do to here but we didn't find it particularly inspiring so we didn't hang around too long.... we have been a bit spoilt for wildlife and scenery in the last 6 months and are probably just getting a bit snobby about what we think is good!

We drove back to the city and then headed 3 hours north-east towards the small township of Omarama, a pleasant base from which to visit Mt Cook National Park. We stopped in Moeraki, a small fishing village to see the strangely spherical boulders along the beach (apparently you require a Phd in Geology to understand how they are formed!). We then headed around the bay to Moeraki harbour for a picnic (which we timed very nicely in between rain showers). Driving further north we stopped and strolled aroung the pretty and quiet Victorian town of Omaru which is full of curiosity shops and antique shops. It was like taking a step back in time! We cut inland and drove to our destination, a small farmstay located just outside the township of Omarama. As we passed through the town we saw a peculiar sight; on the front lawn of the pub were several large displays of dead animals. We went to investigate and got chatting with one of the locals who explained they had just had their annual 'Fur and Feathers' hunting competition. Apparently teams of hunters get together and pull out of a hat whether they are hunting 'furs' (goats, pigs and wallabies) or 'feathers' (just about anything that flies) or both. They then have a set amount of time to hunt and collect as much as they can find. There is also a bonus prize for the team that kills the most rabbits! The spoils of their hunt (all considered by the locals to be pests) were arranged on the lawn in comical poses for the judges to see. We have to admit that for us, it was a bizarre and slightly unpleasant sight.

The farmstay that we have checked into is a lovely cosy place owned and lived in by a friendly and very chatty retired farmer and his little dog Fitzy. We basically share his kitchen, his bathroom and sit with him in front of the fire in his lounge which makes it feel as if we are staying with a friend. The whole house is completely cluttered with trinkets, silverware and nik naks and much to Bi's delight the kitchen cupboards are full of proper English China and silverware for us to use. We immediately booked another night it's so nice. Tomorrow our plan is to drive to Mt Cook National Park about 90kms away for views of the mountain and some Alpine walking.

The Southern Scenic Route & The Catlins Coast

2008-07-30T04:21:00.006+01:00

Friday started with freezing conditions including frozen pipes which left us with no running water. Looking outside of our little log cabin in the morning, all the hills were white with frost, the air was biting and the views over the lake to the distant mountains were spectacular. We bundled into our car and headed south from Manapouri to begin driving the Southern Scenic Route. The route follows the most southerly coastline from Manapouri all the way round to the city of Dunedin on the opposite side of the island via the Catlins Coast.

After stopping to see the stone Clifden suspension bridge we passed through several small and remote townships before bumping into another huge flock of sheep being herded down the main highway. Ash being an expert by now successfully squeezed the car through the flock! We began driving along the first section of the Catlins Coast in the early afternoon between the rather drab town of Invercargill and a tiny township called Papatowai. We took lunch down onto the beach at Waipapa Point where we watched sealions frolicking in stormy seas. We stopped at Slope Point, the most southerly point in New Zealand (next stop south... Antarctica!) then continued onto Curio Bay where we walked amongst the remains of an ancient petrified forest. Next stop was Porpoise Bay where we walked out onto the headland and watched the huge Tasman Sea crash against the coastline. The spray soaked us even 50m up on the cliff! Our last stop for the day was to walk a short undulating track through temperate rainforest to the Maclean Falls in the Chasland Scenic Reserve. That evening we randomly found some remote accommodation perched on a hilltop. It turned out to be a real treat. For $50 (20 pounds) we had a whole country cottage complete with views over the countryside and coast all to ourselves (no-one else turned up). We were wrapped and made ourselves right at home with music and cooking ourselves a roast dinner before curling up on the comfy sofa in front of the TV!

The following morning, Saturday, we begrudgingly left our homely cottage in the rain (again) and drove the final half of the Catlins Coast to Owaka. Along the way we visited Puriwaki Falls and Jack's Bay to see an impressive inland blowhole, Cannibal Bay and Roaring Bay. We drove many kms along unsealed, muddy and gravelly roads which we are sure we should have only done in a 4x4! We finished off at the dramatic Nugget Point where we walked out to the lighthouse perched on top of a cliff headland with great views across the coast. From here we drove straight to Dunedin, a city with heavy Scottish influence and old architecture (it's main attraction). We had a little wander around the city, found some accommodation in an old manor house which as per usual we had pretty much to ourselves. In the evening we did something very normal and went to the cinema to see the new Batman movie.

Milford Sound & Doubtful Sound

2008-07-27T09:22:00.007+01:00

After our adrenaline charged day and a rather well earned night's sleep we were up early to drive to New Zealand's main tourist attraction, the Milford Sound. The Sound is not too far from Queenstown but the journey takes 5 hours because you have to drive all the way around the Southern Alps. We drove 2 hours south from Queenstown along the shores of Lake Wakatipu before heading slightly west along flat plains and then 3 hours north from the town of Te Anua, situated by the large Lake Te Anua. The journey from Te Anua took us along the famous Milford Road, which is regarded as one of the most stunning Alpine scenery drives in the world and it didn't disappoint, even in the drizzly weather. Not long after starting our journey on the twisty narrow road we had to negotiate our way through a flock of around 500 sheep which had completely obstructed the road. We found the whole experience bizarre and very funny! Once safely through the sheep, we recovered from our laughter and continued with the drive. The scenery steadily became more and more dramatic as we drove through Beech Forest and towards the distant snow-capped mountains that eventually towered over us. The weather was fairly overcast and rainy but this made the mountains seem all the more moody and atmospheric. We stopped in at the 'Mirror Lakes' where the significant depth and darkness of the small lakes provides a mirroring effect on the mountains behind. From here we wound our way up the narrow gravelly road past many streams and waterfalls to the Homer Tunnel. The tunnel was carved 1.2km through the mountains and is only 3.6m high with virtually no lighting. The experience of driving through it was the automotive equivalent of driving through a drainpipe. As we exited the tunnel it was like entering a different world... the weather was clear and we had snow-covered mountains all around us which made everything so bright. The road down into Milford was narrow with lots of switchbacks. We stopped several times to take in the views and to take photos of a native Kea, the world's only Alpine parrot which we were lucky to spot by the roadside. These birds are remarkably intelligent and notorious for vandalising cars and sure enough the crafty little thing made a bee line for our car.... not wishing to lose our insurance deposit we dived back into the car and drove away quickly! On arrival into Milford Sound we took a short walk around the tiny waterfront for our first views of the sound. The Sound is a deep-water inlet from the Tasman Sea with calm water and mountains covered in temperate forest towering straight from the water's edge. It was a beautiful sight and we looked forward to our cruise the following day. We spent the night at the remote Milford Lodge which is the only place you can stay in Milford due to strict planning laws. The lodge was lovely and in the most beautiful and tranquil surroundings and even better, it was half empty.

On Wednesday morning we took an early morning boat cruise onto the Milford Sound. We had a beautiful clear morning and when we checked in we found out that there were only going to be 8 of us on a boat which was designed to carry 400 people! It was fantastic and made for a really special and personal trip. We were served a continental breakfast at the start of the cruise which we gobbled down in order to get out on deck. The cruise then lasted an hour and a half and took us along the sound, past numerous coves and waterfalls (one 3 times the height of Niagara Falls) and out into the Tasman Sea to a seal colony before returning back through the sound to Milford. The cruise was beautiful and a real highlight of our NZ trip so far. Back at Milford we jumped in the car for our 3 hour drive south to Lake Manapouri where we hoped to book onto a cruise on the Doutbful Sound. We returned along the same scenic route as the previous day as there is only one road in and out of Milford. We took a short detour to view the fantastic 249m high Humboldt Falls and walk a couple of the marvellous temperate rainforest trails in the Fiordland National Park. Wherever we stopped we had the whole place to ourselves which made it very special. We made the most of the tranquility and sat with our lunch on a riverbank that was surrounded with the most stunning mountain and forest scenery. After lunch we drove several hours to Manapouri, a tiny little village on the shores of Lake Manapouri. Following our guide book we checked into some accommodation on a farm perched on a hilltop with beautiful views over the valley and the lake. We had a small wooden cabin with a kitchenette and cute pot-belly stove for heating.. it was rustic and wonderful. We went for a ramble through the woodlands near the lake before returning to our cabin to defrost ourselves with a hot chocolate by the stove.

On Thursday we booked on to a full day trip out onto the Doubtful Sound which is an exceptionally remote inlet from the Tasman Sea that is only accessible by tour and several modes of transport. We took a launch from the shores of Lake Manapouri and travelled one hour across the lake to West Arm at the opposite end of the lake. From here we looked around a small visitor centre before boarding a bus which took us across the mountains along the Wilson Pass and down into the Doubtful Sound. En-route we stopped for panoramic views of the Sound which were breathtaking. The Sound is wider and longer than Milford Sound and just as impressive and beautiful, perhaps even more so than Milford. We boarded a large catamaran and as we set sail down the Sound a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins swam alongside the boat. We spent almost the whole 3 hours on deck in perfect but cold weather (we couldn't believe our luck!) marvelling at the dramatic scenery and sucking in the fresh air. The snow-capped mountains towered alongside the Sound with waterfalls running down their sides... it made for another really memorable day. We took a bus back to West Arm and before boarding our launch back to Manapouri Village we visited a remote hydroelectric powerstation that is built 200m underground and reached via a 2km tunnel. The station pumps water through turbines from Lake Manapouri into Doubtful Sound to produce electricity for use at a distant smelting plant which supplies a huge quantity of high grade aluminium to the world market.

We spent the evening relaxing in our cabin. There are no lights around the farm so at night it was pitch black and deathly silent. On several occasions we stepped out onto our balcony just to listen to the silence... not something you get very often. We both got a bit of a fright when we heard noises near to our cabin; Bi made a bee line for the cabin and left Ash out on deck to investigate and he was relieved to find it was only a couple of horses walking around, munching on the grass! We have had a splendid two days, easily the highlight of our NZ trip so far.

Tomorrow we head south around the Southern Scenic Route, the southernmost point of New Zealand and the Catlins Coast.

Queenstown, Bungy Jumping and Shotover Jets!

2008-07-20T09:43:00.014+01:00

On Sunday morning we headed south from Franz Josef, stopping at Lake Matheson for a short walk and views of Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. Having seen some of the heaviest rain we had seen in years over the previous 24 hours, the weather had cleared up well and whilst still overcast it was dry and relatively clear. We drove back over the Southern Alps, this time via the suprisingly easy-to-drive Haast Pass to the small and picturesque town of Wanaka which had a distinctly Alpine feel. Here we walked a round circuit via the summit of the 540m high Mt Iron for superb views over Lake Wanaka, Lake Haewa and the Mt Aspiring National Park. In the late afternoon we arrived in Queenstown, so called 'Adventure Capital of the World'. The town is very touristy but beautifully situated on a lake with towering snow-capped mountains surrounding it. It was quite busy so after finding some accommodation we headed into town and booked activities for the following day. Ash booked himself onto the 134m Nevis bungy, the highest in New Zealand. Bi booked on as a spectator as she had firmly decided that she would draw the line at plunging off a small ledge with only an elastic band tied to her ankles! We also booked onto the 'Shotover Jet' for the afternoon, another must-do activity here in Queenstown.

This morning, Monday, we were at the AJ Hackett terminal by 9.45am and after a few paperwork and weighing-in formalities we boarded a bus for the 45 minute journey to the Nevis Highwire Bungy. The platform is suspended across a deep river canyon with the river running approximately 150m below. As we were both going out to the platform we were both harnessed up and weighed again. Bi was also weighed in case she decided to change from being a spectator to a jumper. We got into a small cage that took us out to the mid-point above the canyon and transferred onto the platform. The jumps were carried out in order from heaviest person first. Before Ash knew it he was being harnessed up and attached to the bungy cord as the first jumper in our group of 10. It was a nerve-wracking moment. After being carefully tied in, Ash shuffled to the edge of the platform. Bi was shaking just watching! The hardest part was standing on the ledge with the huge drop below. The AJ Hackett guy lowered the bungy cord which felt like it weighed a ton and you could feel it pulling you off the edge. The instructor went 3-2-1 and..... Ash stayed on the platform! A moment later he jumped and woohoooed all his way on the 8.5 seconds freefall to the bottom, only 20m above the canyon floor, before bouncing half-way back up and then doing it all over again. He was still 'woohooing' at the bottom! It all happened very quickly and the rebound wasn't nearly as bad or as much of a jolt as it looks. It was awesome and Ash had a huge grin on his face being reeled back up into the platform.

By this point Bi looked nervous. She had decided that if she was ever going to do a bungy, this was the place to do it and it was now or never! She bravely signed up and then because she was the lightest person in the group she had to nervously wait for the next 40 minutes watching before it was her turn... last of all! Feeling nauseous and terrified Bi was strapped to the bungy cord and shuffled out onto the platform edge. They say don't look down but curiosity means you can't help it and it is terrifying and after a few looks down Bi packed it. The AJ Hacket guide did a few countdowns..3...2..1.... and when Bi still didn't move from the platform both him and Ash did a bit of gentle coaxing. This all happened over about 15 seconds and then Bi just plunged herself off the platform.... nothing graceful, no outstrestched arms or swan dives like Ash had done, just pure terror and the reality that she should just go for it. It would only last 10 seconds and then be over and would be an experience to remember! Bi screamed like a baby all the way to the bottom but as soon as the bungy cord pulled her back up her arms were out waving and she was 'woohooing' at what she had just done!! After all that fear, she really loved it...the worst bit was taking the leap of faith off the platform but after that.. wow.. what a feeling!

Pumped with adrenaline and armed with our dvd's and our free t-shirts we boarded the minibus back to Queenstown where we grabbed a quick lunch and then checked in for our ride on the 'Shotover Jet'. We boarded another minibus and travelled 10 minutes out of town to a beatuiful canyon area. We were given waterproofs and lifejackets before boarding the jet boat. After a very short briefing the jetboat literally took off through the canyon, racing at speeds of up to 80kmh over inch-deep water in places and whizzing right up past the canyon sides. The driver would wave his finger to signal we were doing a 360 and we grabbed hold of the heated handrail (the only luxury but well needed as it was bitterly cold!) and then would spin the boat in a full 360 on the spot, spraying water and looking like we were going to stop by crashing into the sides of the canyon. After 20 minutes we were pretty cold and wet but it was great fun.

After our first ever bungy, and the highest one at that, we are treating ourselves to a celebratory dinner out tonight in Queenstown. Then it will be early to bed because we are both pooped from all the adrenaline!

Tomorrow we will drive the scenic route to Milford Sound.

Driving Arthur's Pass & the West Coast Glaciers

2008-07-19T06:22:00.012+01:00

After the whale watching we headed 2 hours further south along the coast towards Christchurch before heading inland and west towards the Southern Alps for our 140km long crossing of Arthur's Pass. The Pass snakes its way through the stunning scenery of snow-capped mountains and forest of Arthur's Pass National Park. The road is in itself an amazing piece of engineering considering that it was built in 1864 and we were nervous that we might not be able to cross as it is often closed due to poor weather at this time of year.

Thankfully it was open and it was very quiet and peaceful 2.5 hour crossing... the roads are so empty of traffic in the South Island. We stopped along the way in the historic Jackson's Pub for hot chocolate with marshmallows. On reaching the west coast we headed south, finishing our long journey just after nightfall in the small township of Franz Josef. We found a charming hostel called Glow-worm Cottages and they gave us a lovely little room with its own kitchenette and Sky TV for the price of a basic hostel room. We marvelled in our luck and made ourselves right at home!

Saturday morning was very cloudy and overcast. After a well deserved lie-in we drove just out of town to see the famous Franz Josef glacier. We walked up Sentinel Rock for some good distant views of the 12km long glacier before walking for an hour along the glacial riverbed to the face of the glacier. As we returned to the car a torrential downpour began... and it never stopped! Well, when have we ever been stopped by the weather! We drove 30 minutes further south to the Fox Glacier and kitted up in all our waterproofs and ponchos to begin an hour's walk to the glacier face. It poured down and we had to cross two rapidly flowing rivers before we reached the glacier face which was impressive despite the cloud and the heavy rain. By the time we started walking back to the car the river levels had already increased so we had a tricky time getting across, especially with Bi's little legs! Just before getting to the car the weather worsened further... we had thunder and lightning, the rain poured and the wind howled. We were drenched but the waterproofs held. Unfortunately our shoes did not and after we dived back into the car we were able to wring our socks out! We sat in the car and ate lunch before deciding to call it a day and return to relax for the afternoon in our nice room. Within half an hour we were dry, in our pyjamas, eating popcorn and watching movies! It was actually just what we needed after nearly 6 months of pretty full on travelling.

Tomorrow we head across the Haast Pass to Queenstown where Ash is looking forward to some adrenaline-fuelled activities. We are really enjoying our time in the South Island. It is such a beautiful and rugged place and despite the weather, being off-season has meant we have had most of the sights to ourselves.

Marlborough, Kaikoura and Whale Watching

2008-07-19T06:02:00.004+01:00

We were up and out of the hostel early on Thursday, heading to our next destination of Kaikoura on the East Coast. After a couple of hours driving along the North Coast we reached the town of Blenheim which is situated at the far east of the South Island. The town itself is situated on flat plains and is surrounded by vineyards. We were in the region of Marlborough, famous for it's world class wine production and we could not resist stopping in at the Villa Maria vineyard where we enjoyed a tasting of many of their wines. We were lucky to try some of the reserve whites and reds that you cannot buy outside of New Zealand, including a tasting of their award winning pinot noir which is rated as the best in New Zealand.... naturally Ash snapped up a bottle, for a special occasion he reckons!!!! With Bi slightly cross-eyed after the excellent and plentiful tasting (and falling asleep in the passenger seat!) we drove a few kms east for a tasting at the enormous Montana estate which is the biggest winery in New Zealand. We tried several different wines but after the wines at Villa Maria they tasted decidely average and so we left empty handed. The credit card was very thankful!

With the weather worsening we hopped back in our car and drove south along the beautiful Kaikoura coast towards the town of Kaikoura. The coastline was rugged and stunning and the driving rain and heavy clouds made it even more atmospheric. Along the twisty road there were a number of small huts selling locally caught crayfish. Unable to resist temptation any longer, Ash pulled over and bought himself a whole cooked crayfish which he sat eating outside in a spot overlooking the coast.... it was perfect! Bi disagreed and stuck to the safety of her cheese and pickle sandwich! Shortly before arriving in Kaikoura we pulled over by the roadside to look down on a seal colony at Ohau Bay. The seals were floating around in the raging water and basking on the rocks as if it were a lovely summers day! We arrived in the small town of Kaikoura in the late afternoon. The town has a special location along the coast where upswellings from a 1,100m deep trench in the sea brings an abundance of marine life close to the surface, making the whole area very popular with whales (and tourists!). We booked ourselves passage onto a whale-watching cruise for the following morning then found a nice, old, homely hostel for the night. Not being ones to let the bad weather stop us, we went for walk up and along the Kaikoura peninsula which afforded nice views out over the coast and the town. On a clear day we would have been able to see the many snow capped mountains of the Southern Alps and as far as the North Island. We finished our walk with a hot flask of tea and some cake out in the cold, before heading back to our hostel and the log fire for the evening.

We were up at 6am on Friday morning and after another hearty breakfast drove the short distance to join our whale watching tour. Amazingly, the weather had completely cleared and there was not a cloud in the sky. We were taken by bus across to the other side of the peninsula before boarding a large catamaran which took us out past the peninsula into the bay, right over the 1,100m deep trench. The crew searched for the whales through a combination of pure experience and hydrophonics by lowering a special device overboard that picked up the whale's sonar and helped pinpoint their position. Very quickly we found our first sperm whale bobbing on the surface and blowing spray into the air which was a magnificent sight. After 5 minutes of watching the whale it dived, fluking it's tail into the air and Ash managed to capture it perfectly with the mountainous backdrop behind. We cruised further out to sea and saw another sperm whale up for air before it dived to the depths to feed. They really are majestic creatures and the sightings that we had in Kaikoura were better than those we had in Antarctica. We headed in shore to see some seals basking in the sun and giant petrels and albatrosses bobbing on the water. Apparently 80% of the world's seabirds can be found in Kaikoura. We headed back in shore where we stopped for our customary flask of tea and cake before heading off for our journey across the mountains to the opposite side of the island.

Abel Tasman National Park

2008-07-18T05:51:00.000+01:00

We were up early on a fine Wednesday morning and after our usual brekky of porridge we were collected by minibus and taken to the beachside in Marahau. Here we boarded an 'Aquataxi' speedboat to take us into the Abel Tasman National Park. Unusually, we boarded the boat in a car park and the boat was then towed by a tractor to the jetty down the road and released into the water. After 20 minutes speeding along the beautiful, rugged coastline we were dropped off at Bark Bay and began our 20km (6hr) walk back to Marahau. The National Park is the smallest in New Zealand but it lies along the coast and is beautiful, hilly and covered in lush green forest. Our 'tramping' (the New Zealand term for hiking) took us along the Abel Tasman Coastal Path, which was like a narrow ledge that twisted and turned its way through the forest with magnificent views over many different bays. When we reached Torrent Bay it was low tide and so we took off our shoes and socks and waded our way for 30 minutes through ice cold streams and a very muddy estuary to reach the other side. The experience was a little chilly in mid-winter but good fun! We plonked ourselves on a small isolated beach and had a picnic lunch at midday before another three hours of very pleasant walking back to Marahau. The sight of our tranquil little hostel with smoke pouring out of the chimney was a welcome sight at the end of the day and we sat next to the roaring log fire with a hot chocolate and biccies. In the evening we drove 20 minutes along the coast to the tiny and very sleepy town of Mapua where we enjoyed some wine and a huge bag of fish and chips by the wharf. Ash enjoyed a local dish, a mussel pattie, which as it sounds is deep fried chopped mussels!

Wellington and the ferry to the South Island

2008-07-15T21:29:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we drove south for 8 hours through scenic countryside to Wellington, arriving at the capital late in the afternoon. En route we stopped in the town of Wanganui where we bought ourselves a down jacket each in the sales... it's absolutely freezing here at the moment! We checked into a 5* hostel in the city centre which was painted like a zebra on the outside but much nicer inside! We lugged our beloved and stuffed-full ice box plus another box full of groceries up to the kitchen and spent the evening cooking up a storm in the hostel. We are carting around enough food to open our own general store.... trust us! We finished the evening with a stroll around the city which was deadly quiet on a Sunday night.

We spent Monday wandering through the city. We took an old cable car up to the botanical gardens which sit on a hill overlooking the city and the harbour. We had a good walk then sat eating our packed lunch whilst enjoying the views. We wandered back down to the city through an old cemetery trail that depicts the history of the early European settlers of Wellington and then strolled along the pretty harbourside dotted with cafes, shops and restaurants. We spent the remainder of our afternoon in the interesting Te Papa museum, the national museum of New Zealand. We spent the evening relaxing in the hostel with a nice bottle of wine which Ash enjoyed with a huge bowl of locally picked Green Lipped mussels that he had cooked up for himself... the other guests looked on enviously!

We were up and out of the hostel early on Tuesday and down at the docks to board the Interlander ferry across to Picton on the South Island. We drove our little car onto the ferry, parked her up and then sat ourselves on the top deck to absolutely freeze but enjoy the spectacular views along the 3 hour journey, in particular through the Queen Charlotte Sound.

At Picton we went straight onto the windy Queen Charlotte coastal drive as we headed west towards the Abel Tasman National Park. The drive offered beautiful views over the fjord-like bays and inlets of the north coast. We stopped in Nelson en route to have our windscreen replaced as it had a large crack that was rapidly spreading in the cold weather. Thankfully we had decided to take out windscreen insurance at the last minute so we were covered! With a new windscreen we drove west for a further 2 hours to the tiny and remote coastal village of Marahau at the entrance to the National Park. We arrived after dark and found a charming little backpackers place called 'The Barn'. It was half empty and very tranquil, and we sat in our pjs in front of the roaring log fire with hot milo and biscuits... it was perfect!

Waitomo and the Caves

2008-07-13T08:36:00.000+01:00

Friday was a more leisurely day which was just as well because the rain was back again! After lunch in the hostel kitchen we drove 2 hours east to the tiny village of Waitomo for some caving adventures. Waitomo is the caving capital of New Zealand and has hundreds of kilometres of cave networks within the limestone rock that surrounds the tiny village. We had originally planned to head to Waitomo before visiting Rotorua but had to change our plans because the cave systems had been flooded by heavy rain. Although water levels were still very high we were able to book onto a 'Gruesome Twosome' full-day 'wet' caving adventure for Saturday, which combined two beautifully named trips, 'Haggas Honking Holes' and 'The Lost World Epic'! We were even more wrapped when they accepted our 'buy one get one free voucher' which saved us 180 pounds!!

On Saturday morning it was still pouring with rain but it didn't matter considering we would be crawling around inside a cave! We visited the small caves museum and then headed to the Waitomo Adventure office to check in for our trip. Our trips were the only trips operating for the day... all the cave systems used by other companies had been completely flooded out overnight so we were very lucky. We were taken a short drive into the hills and onto a farm where the cave entrance was located. The Waitomo caves are owned by whichever farmer should happen to own the land they sit beneath and the adventure companies have a lease to use the caves for their activities. Apparently this pays the farmers very well indeed. We had a short briefing, changed into some seriously thick wetsuits, donned some welly boots, helmets and then set off to the cave entrance which was hidden down in some undergrowth! We clambered down into a dark and small entrance into the cave which had water gushing into it, and before we knew it we were tied on to a rope and were abseiling down a 20m waterfall inside the cave! We both got down absolutely soaked but with big grins on our faces. For the next 3 hours we clambered, climbed and crawled our way through the Haggas Cave system, which had water raging through it due to all the heavy rainfall. It was so loud that we could hardly hear our guides speak. We were due to go down a further 2 waterfall abseils, but at the second abseil we had to abort to an alternative route. Ash and two other guys had gone with the guide down the second abseil and at the bottom they were up to their chests in deep water and unable to reach the next passage as it was flooded. They all had a strenuous climb back up through the raging waterfall and looked a little worse for wear by the time they reached safety! Our alternative route still proved to be very adventurous as we stomped and crawled through passages with knee deep water gushing through them! We stopped towards the bottom of the cave system, turned off our headtorches and looked up at what resembled the night sky... there were hundreds of glow-worms illuminating the cave walls with their bio-luminescence. It was an amazing sight and something Waitomo is famous for. After several hours, we climbed our way up several waterfalls and a high ladder to exit the cave, showered and returned to Waitomo for a very quick lunch of sandwiches made in the boot of our car and a bag of hot chips.

After our quick lunch we were back in the minibus but this time heading in the opposite direction for our afternoon caving trip, the 'Lost World Epic'. After kitting up in overalls we walked to an enormous and deep cave entrance which is called 'The Lost World' and looks like scenery from a Jurassic Park film. The entrance was over 100m deep with sheer cliffs down the sides, and yep, we were abseiling down into it! From a tiny steel balcony overhanging the drop below we harnessed up and dropped off the side, swinging freely on a rope with the 100m drop below us. Our abseil to the bottom of the cave took about 10 minutes and it was an amazing experience and something neither of us have done on such scale before! We really felt like intrepid explorers lowering ourselves into the dark and misty depths. At the bottom we unclipped ourselves from the ropes and clambered into a huge cave with a dangerously fast river flowing through it. One slip into the water and you would end up being taken 5km through the cave with a 30 minute cave dive required at the other end to reach the exit alive! We spent a good hour in the cave but were unable to go too far because the water levels in the cave were rising rapidly against the ladder we would need to exit the cave. As such we made an early exit and climbed up the 30m ladder (with a nice display of glow-worms around us!) and upwards through the cave for another 30 minutes before reaching the exit. The weather and the raging high waters made for exhilarating caving..... the best way to experience the caves apparently. In the evening we collapsed in our hostel which unfortunately was not a very nice one and completely overrun with noisy teenagers!

On Sunday morning (after about 3 hours sleep due to the noise!!) we left Waitomo and drove 8 hours south to Wellington, the country's capital.

Rotorua

2008-07-12T06:53:00.001+01:00

We left Auckland early on Wednesday morning and drove three hours southeast to a town called Rotorua, stopping along the way at a small English-feeling town called Cambridge. The drive was through rolling green hills and farmland, very similar to the scenery in South Wales. On arrival into Rotorua we stopped in at 'Skylines Skyride' to try our hand at 'Luging'. Before we really knew what we were doing we had bought a gondola pass each to the summit of Mt Ngongotaha and 3 'luge passes'. Well, we found out what the luge was! Arriving at the summit by gondola we saw 3 tracks skirting down the mountainside with people wizzing down the tracks on something that resembled a large plastic dinner tray on wheels and with a steering column...it looked absolutely insane so of course we had to give it a go! Our first trip was down the 'scenic route' which was actually rather mild but gave us the hang of driving the luge and some nice views across Rotorua and the lake. At the bottom we caught a chairlift back up and flew down the intermediate and then the advanced tracks which were very fast. Ash even managed to get some 'air' off one of the big drops! It was a lot of fun spending the afternoon like big kids!

After an afternoon of Luging we found ourselves a 5* hostel (yes, there is such a thing... it's a hostel for the more 'mature and fussy' budget traveller like us!!) and we dumped our bags and went to check out the town. Rotorua is a small and touristy town and is centred on an area of intense geothermal activity. We wandered around one of the several parks in the city which was scattered with large steaming pools, bubbling mud pots and smelt heavily of sulphur (rotten eggs).... Bi's stinking cold had its plus side! It was funny to also see steam venting from the roadside drains! After our walk in the cold we headed across town to the Polynesian Spa to spend a few hours soaking in the various thermal pools ranging from 27 to 42 degrees and overlooking Lake Rotorua. It was very relaxing and great for the body, even if 4 days on we still can't get the eggy smell of sulphur out of our swimwear! We finished the evening off with a complimentary glass of wine in a local pub, The Pig and Whistle, courtesy of the hostel we were staying at. We are getting exceptionally good at making the most of every freebie we can get hold of. It is 'off season' here and there are loads of discount vouchers in all the tourist brochures so our car boot is loaded with them......especially the 'buy one get one free' token for a popular coffee house chain!

Thursday was another busy day and we had glorious weather for it... finally!! We were up super early and after our customary porridge and making of packed lunches, we drove south through thick fog to Wai-O-Tapu, a volcanic reserve. We arrived for opening and had the place to ourselves which was lovely. We walked around the steaming park looking at the volcanic craters, mud pots and beautiful pools which had been coloured by the various chemicals brought up to the surface by volcanic activity. They had great names such as the 'Devils Ink Pot', 'Artists Palette' and the 'Champagne Pool'. Again, the air was thick with the smell of sulphur and very foggy from all the steam that was being vented from the ground. At 10.15am we watched the scheduled eruption of the Lady Knox geyser (triggered by a packet of soap powder)... we say erupt but it looked more like a hot water fountain. It was not the most exciting experience having already seen the geysers in Iceland which erupt on their own with huge force. We spent another few hours wandering around the park before jumping back in to the car and heading further south towards the town of Taupo. We stopped to admire the impressive Huka Falls (where 220,000 litres of water a second rages through a canyon only 15m wide) and then spent a good hour walking around the Craters of the Moon park, another geothermal park with great views towards Lake Taupo (the largest lake in Australasia) and the distant Tongariro mountains. We stopped for a late picnic in Taupo at a scenic spot overlooking the town and lake. It was a bright day and we could see clearly across the lake to the snow-covered mountains in the distance. After lunch we took a scenic drive along the eastern shores of Lake Taupo, stopping to take photos before returning to Rotorua for DIY tea and scones! That evening we decided to go to a native Maori performance and hangi in a village just outside Rotorua called Mitai. There we saw an excellent show of Maori songs, weapons displays, rituals and the inevitable haka finale (made famous by the All Blacks rugby team). We then proceeded to eat a hangi, a meal of meat and vegetables (potatoes and kumura or sweet potato) that is cooked under the ground using stones that have been heated on an open fire. The food had a smoky taste and was plentyful and delicious. We finished the night with a walk around Rainbow Springs Reserve, a freshwater spring and native animal enclosure where amongst other things we saw glow worms and some very amusing native kiwi birds jumping around. We were originally worried that the experience would be very touristy but in fact it had a pleasantly authentic feel and was a very worthwhile and enjoyable night.

Driving the Kauri Coast

2008-07-11T06:51:00.002+01:00

On Tuesday, we cooked a massive bowl of porridge for breakfast to fend against the cold and then drove north to the small town of Kerikeri to visit an old grain Stonehouse, built in 1834 and the oldest building in New Zealand. The town is also famous for it's citrus fruit as it has a very good climate. The road into the town was dotted with many different farms all selling their fruit and so we stopped and bought some for our travels. We headed west across the island, stopping for our picnic lunch at a spot overlooking the large natural Hokianga Harbour and then joined the Kauri Coast 'Scenic Drive' which took us deep into Waipoua Forest, where some of the best examples of kauri forest remaining in the country are preserved. We visited two of the largest living kauri trees, Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere, which were simply enormous, and the Four Sisters, four Kauri trees that have grown close to each other with a wooden walkway around. The forest was very impressive. We had our flask of tea in the car park to warm up before heading out of the forest on a beautiful but very windy road, stopping at the Kauhi Kauri shop to pick up some souvenirs, a cheeseboard made of Kauri wood. We then drove 3 hours and had lovely views of the city at dusk as we drove over the harbour bridge. Auckland is a beautifully positioned city. We are staying with Judith for the night to break up our journey before heading southeast tomorrow to Rotorua.

Auckland & the Bay of Islands

2008-07-09T10:50:00.017+01:00

After a rather nerve wracking aborted landing, we finally arrived in Auckland at lunchtime on Thursday and after stocking up with enough tourist brochures and discount vouchers to sink a small ship we we collected our 'Jucy' hire car ... an extremely unmasculine white Daihatsu Sirion, but it was cheap! Judith, a lady we had met on our Galapagos trip had invited us to stay with her in Auckland and with instructions in hand, we navigated our way to her house which is perfectly located in a lovely upmarket suburb called Epsom on the edge of the city. It was pouring with rain so we spent the afternoon wandering into the main shopping area in the adjacent suburb of Newmarket. In the evening, Judith took us to the Auckland Town Hall, a grand building, where we sat in our walking clothes (not much choice!) to enjoy a performance of Beethoven's 4th & Emperor symphonies by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra... we couldn't have looked more out of place! All the same, it was a very pleasant, cultured and relaxing evening.

On Friday we were up early and the skies had cleared, so we took a bus to the Sky Tower in the city centre. The city centre was eerily empty of traffic due to a large blockade of lorries in protest to the rising fuel prices... something we had come to expect in South America, not New Zealand! However, it caused us little problem with the bus dropping us off on the edge of the centre and only a short walk from the Sky Tower, where we bought our tickets and took an elevator 60 stories to the observation deck. At 328m high, the Sky Tower is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere and afforded fantastic views across the city and the Huaraki Gulf. Our timing couldn't have been better because no sooner had we left the Sky Tower, the clouds swept in and it poured with rain! We walked to the harbour and took a 10 minute ferry across Auckland harbour to Devonport, a pretty and very quaint small suburb with a distinctly English feel. By the time we arrived at Devonport harbour the rain had stopped and had been replaced with blue skies... marvellous luck! We walked to the North Head for some fantastic views across the city and after a wander around the pretty streets and a huge lunch we headed back across the ferry and returned home. That evening, we had a dinner party...cooked by us! Judith had invited 4 of her friends for dinner so we made a huge roast and had a fun sociable evening.

On Saturday, Judith took us out for a proper 'Kiwi' day. She really was very good to us and looked after us so well! We visited one of Judith's friends who had been with us on the Galapagos trip before heading across the harbour bridge to a small old theatre to see a local film called 'Second Hand Wedding'. In the afternoon we drove out to Muriwai, a tiny village situated on the west coast, some 40 minutes drive from Auckland. The weather was unbelievable... as we drove down towards the rugged coastline, we pulled over to admire the view. The wind was so strong it rocked the car and it hailed heavily. The Tasman Sea was white and swelling hugely... we all said we had never seen seas so rough! After a necessarily short walk on the black sand beach we headed back towards Auckland, stopping in a 'Bees Online', a working honey farm and coffee shop, where we (funnily enough) bought some honey and drank (surprisingly) hot honey and lemon! That night we went next door for dinner with Judith's sister and family, where we sat eating dinner watching the All Blacks play South Africa... it was a proper Kiwi night in!

On Sunday morning we visited the Auckland museum and watched a Maori cultural performance. We left Judith's house after lunch armed with an old cool box that she had filled with food for us. We drove north for 3 hours through some scenic countryside (very green and reminiscent of England) to the small town of Paihia, situated on the north-east coast and the main gateway to the Bay of Islands. Along the way we stopped in at one of New Zealand's more bizarre sights, the toilets in Kawakawa, with a grass roof, cermaic tiles and bottle glass windows. They were designed by famous Austrian artist Frederick Hundertwasser, and well, they were erm... interesting! Everything here is reasonably quiet as it is winter and out of season so it was no problem to find accommodation in a 5 star hostel!

The following morning we took a cruise out around the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands is a beautiful 16km natural harbour, and is peppered with over 150 islands. It is volcanic, very green and the water is crystal clear. We toured through the islands and headed out to Cape Brett and to the 'Hole-In-The-Rock', a large hole through one of the islands that has been etched by wind and waves, which was big enough to sail our boat through! On our return we stopped to watch 2 dolphins swimming near the boat and we were dropped off at the tiny remote village of Russell on the other side of the bay from Paihia where we sat eating our packed lunch overlooking the bay. Ash got attacked by seagulls after his sarnie! Russell was the first permanent settlement by Europeans and after 20 minutes we had walked the whole village so we took a small passenger ferry back across the bay. We picked up our car and drove a couple of kilometres to Waitangi where we saw the place where the Waitangi treaty was signed in 1840 (a historic moment that ensured peaceful living between the resident English and the Maori people). We finished the day with a drive to Mt Bledisloe for views across the bay and visited the rather disappointing Haruru Falls (they were tiny!). All in all it was a busy day!

Fiji

2008-07-06T09:14:00.009+01:00

Our arrival into Nadi airport on the Fiji mainland was totally chaotic and it took ages to get through customs with everything operating on 'Fiji time'! We picked up a transfer around the main island to our hotel, the 'Outrigger on the Lagoon' which is a 5 star resort in a place called Korotonga on the Coral Coast at the southern end of the island. Back in Bolivia (funny that all our thoughts of luxury should happen there!) we had decided to splash out on 5 nights in a 5 star resort as a treat to ourselves for having roughed it for 5 months. It was a 90 minute journey to the resort and it was after 10pm when we arrived. We checked in and our butler showed us to our room... we jumped up and down in excitement for a while before collapsing into bed, exhausted by the past few days of travel.

We awoke on Wednesday to an overcast and quite blustery day which was not a particularly good introduction to Fiji. Little did we know that this was a taste of the weather that was to come for the next 5 days! Our huge room was fabulous with a lovely balcony and views out over the resort and the coral coast. We treated ourselves to a buffet breakfast and ate more in one sitting then we had eaten in the past month! The plan was to then spend our time in the water, kayaking and snorkelling around the reef and doing our advanced open water diving qualification. However, we were disappointed to find that due to strong current and bad weather, all resort activites and diving were cancelled until further notice and that no access was being allowed to the beach. The wet weather programme was in operation and consisted of board games, bingo and coconut bowling. WHAT?!! Apparently there had been an earthquake out to sea which had caused severe currents and a huge uprising in sea levels. We consoled ourselves by signing up for a mini tour of the resort's spa.... specifically to get the free glass of champagne at the end. We then spent the rest of the day planning how we would spend our time on the Coral Coast in bad weather and organise some island hopping for when we left the resort half way through our time in fiji.

On Thursday we actually had a little sunshine and so we escaped from the resort and took a full day tour to the Namosi Highlands and the Luva River where we enjoyed a combination of activities. We drove into the highlands along a narrow, unmade road that was reminiscent of our bus journeys in South America. The scenery was also very similar to the Amazon, but on a smaller scale. Our first stop was the remote village of Nakavika where they stopped practicising cannibalism only 100 years ago! The village was very basic but quite pretty and well kept. It was made up of little weatherboard homes that were largely empty inside with people sitting on the floor and chickens running around. We were dressed in sarongs to cover our legs as a mark of respect and taken into the tribal Chief's home to take part in a traditional Fijian 'Kava' ceremony to welcome us into the village. Kava is a local drink made from soaking a brown, dried plant root in water and is a mild narcotic. It looks like muddy water, tastes horrid and made the back of our throats go numb! It is considered very rude not to finish the whole cup so you must drink it whether you like it or not. Thankfully, the shape of the cup was such that it nicely concealed the looks of disgust on our faces and the look of horror when we were told we would be getting a second cup! We won't be making a habit of drinking Kava!

After the village we walked down to the nearby Luva river where we jumped into big yellow inflatable kayaks (that looked a lot like bananas!) and spent the next 2 hours paddling 7km downstream on whitewater. We were thrown right in at the deep end.. straight onto strong rapids which was not quite the gentle paddle that Bi had envisaged. We weren't expecting so much swell but it certainly made for exciting and exhilarating paddling! The scenery along the river was beautiful, thick jungle, deep canyons and waterfalls that cascaded over our heads and into the river. On reaching the confluence of the Luva river and Upper Navua river we transferred into motorised canoes and finished our day with an hour's trip through the Navua canyon. We made it back to our resort in time to pick up our daily complimentary champagne and canapes which we enjoyed while sat on our balcony dressed in our big hotel robes and slippers..... luxury for us! That night, as we sat eating dinner overlooking the beach, the weather turned again and the condition of the seas dramatically deteriorated and the waves started crashing in over the resort, breaking several parasols.

We spent our final two days in the resort just relaxing and taking part in some of the resort activities such as firewalking shows, meditation, pool aerobics (Bi only!). Bi made everyone laugh by falling asleep in the meditation session and stayed asleep after everyone had gotten up! Lazy wotsit! We visited the local town of Sigatoka (which had a heavy Indian influence) and we felt right at home again... it was chaotic, cultural and grubby! Although we enjoyed our time at the resort, it wasn't really for us and we were glad to be leaving half way through our trip. We loved the room, the view and sitting on the balcony drinking our duty-free Aussie wine but we felt a bit trapped... made even worse by the bad weather, cancellation of a lot of the activities and the millions of kids that seemed to take over the resort. For us it was devoid of any culture so it made for a fairly average experience but we would have seen it in a different light if we hadn't just spent all that time in South America and had arrived straight from work on a normal few weeks holiday.

On our fifth day (Sunday) we checked out and took a transfer back around the Island to the port of Denarau where we boarded a fast catamaran and travelled through the Mamanuca archipelago to the island of Mana, one hour from the mainland. From there we boarded 'Seaspray', an 83ft tall ship on which we spent the day sailing around the islands. It was another overcast day and the sea was a little rough but it was fantastic to be out in the Islands. Our first stop was a village on the small island of Yanayuna and our main stop for the day was on the island of Mondriki, made famous as the island where 'Castaway' with Tom Hanks was filmed. Despite it being a little overcast the island was beautiful and it had some fantastic snorkelling (with a big school of squid being a highlight). We returned to Mana on some pretty rough seas, with the boat heeling so hard at one point that all the afternoon tea flung overboard before we had a chance to eat it! In the evening we were dropped off at Bounty Island where we spent the night in a highly romantic 20 bed dorm (it was all they had left but thankfully there were only 7 of us in it!). Unbeknownst to us when we booked it, we were staying on the island where 'Celebrity Love Island' was filmed a few years ago, but thankfully it had all been well cleared away! The island was tiny, taking only 40 guests and taking just 20 minutes to walk around the following morning. We saw our first Fijian sunrise......after all this time the rain had finally cleared and blue skies were back!

After breakfast on Monday we boarded the 'Yasawa Flyer' from Bounty Island and travelled 4 hours further away from the Fiji mainland, past all the Mamanuca islands and out to the more distant Yasawa archipelago. The catamaran trip was like a tour in itself as you got to see all the Islands along the way. We disembarked at a place called Oarsman's Bay Lodge on Nacula island. Well, what a difference! At Oarsman's Bay we finally saw what we had expected Fiji to look like.... beautiful pure white beaches, perfect clear water bulging with coral and sea life, kayaks, palm trees, hammocks and thatched bures set back from the beach. It was very private and personal with only 25 guests on the island. The resorts on the Islands are run very much like homestays by a local family who cook all your meals for you. We checked into our Bure (a small private lodge) and had a vastly improved last 3 days in Fiji. We spent most of the time lazing in our hammock, walking the beach and snorkelling and kayaking around the coral reef just off shore. Ash had a go at handline fishing, only to return having not caught a thing! All the staff at the lodge got to know Bi because she was their one and only vegetarian (!), and they took a real shine to her which paid off in a big way. On our second night we were due to move into the 13 bed dorm as there were no private bures available except for one deluxe bure which we could not afford. The owners quietly gave us the deluxe bure on the second night for the price of the dorm room and we were doing loop de loop! We could not believe our luck!

On Wednesday, our last day at Oarsmans bay, we took a 30 minute boat trip around the headland to the beautiful underwater limestone cave system of Sawa-i-Lau. We donned mask, snorkel and fins and had to swim through a small, dark, submerged passage to enter the cave system which was a little daunting. We swam around inside the caves where it was near pitch black and all sound reverberated around the cave system; it made for a very unusual swimming experience! On the way back we stopped at Honeymoon Island for some fantastic snorkelling in crystal clear water. Our stay at Oarsman's Bay was fantastic and very relaxing and we had beautiful weather. On Wednesday afternoon we returned to the mainland happy and more content with our time in Fiji and we capped it off with dinner and cocktails at the Hard Rock Cafe in Port Denarau.

We spent the night in a hotel near Nadi airport and were up early on Thursday morning to catch our flight to Auckland,New Zealand where we will spend five weeks touring the North and South Islands.

A Brief Stop in Sydney

2008-06-25T08:57:00.000+01:00

With our South American adventures over, we left Santiago airport for Sydney late on Friday 20th June. Our journey was 18 hours with an 18 hour time difference to boot so we were a little spaced out when we arrived into Sydney. We were met at the airport by a couple we made friends with on the Inca Trail who had invited us to stay with them on our 2 day stopover in Sydney (en route to Fiji). We stayed in Coogee, a very pleasant and upmarket beachfront suburb just outside the main city and adjacent to Bondi. After freshening up we were taken on a tour along the coast where we walked around Bondi and Bronte. It was a crisp but sunny winter day and the coastline was spectacular. We were both experiencing full-on ‘reverse culture shock’ being back in a very upmarket and expensive district, seeing all the extortionate modern apartments, flash cars, cafes, boutique shops and restaurants, with joggers running along the beach with their iPods and the many people out for a walk wearing all their expensive clothes, sporting their Luis Vuitton handbags and expensive sunglasses. It caused a mixed set of emotions......on the one hand we were very excited and pleased to be back in such normality but on the other, it was a sudden reminder that we had truly finished our time in South America and just how different life is for some people. Everything suddenly appeared extremely materialistic and in stark contrast to what we had seen throughout South America and we actually missed it.

We later headed to Watson’s Bay for fish and chips and from our table we had magnificent views across the harbour to the city, the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Ash enjoyed his first Aussie beer but we could not get over how expensive everything was. After spending $3 for a burger/fish and chips in South America, $20 each felt like daylight robbery and boy did we go on about it! We didn't last too much longer as the jet lag caught up with us so by early afternoon we flaked and fell asleep for a few hours, only to be woken by the smell of a good ole Aussie BBQ for dinner!

On Monday we were up early and ventured out for our first English Full Breakfast (which we had promised ourselves as a treat one morning as we ate stale bread in Bolivia!). However, we were so horrified at the prices being charged for breakfast in all the cafes that we ended up buying a fresh juice and a Danish from the local bakery. We happily sat and ate our breakfast on the beach! We spent the rest of the day with Bi's dad who was in Sydney for the day. Bi has not seen her family for 18 months now so it was really nice to see her dad. He took us out for lunch on the beachfront (again we were complaining left, right and centre about how expensive everything was!) and then we all headed into the city centre to do some shopping. At the end of the day Bi's Dad drove us back to Coogee and in the evening we took our hosts out for a Thai dinner to thank them for having us.

On Tuesday we were up early and packed ready for our lunchtime flight to Nadi, Fiji. We crumbled and decided that we would splash out on a full breakfast so we treated ourselves to what has to have been the most enormous cooked breakfast either of us have ever eaten... but it was heaven! We don't think that it will be any trouble piling back on all the weight we lost in South America.... much to Bi's disappointment (she is desperately trying to keep it off but it's not working!. At 10ish we took a taxi to the airport and boarded an enormous 747 chock full of Aussie tourists and screaming children for the 3 hour flight to Fiji. We have never seen an airline serve out so much beer in all our flying experience!

The end of our journey through South America

2008-06-19T23:34:00.009+01:00

Today is our last day in South America (in Santiago, Chile) and we are genuinely sad to be leaving. We have had the trip of a lifetime! We have comprehensively covered most of the contintent and have been fortunate to get through our travels unscathed, with us and all our belongings still intact! Over the past 4.5 months we have had so many varied experiences, some amazing, some good and some downright scary but they have taught us a lot and fending for ourselves and planning every step of our overland journey all on our own has been incredibly rewarding. The months of research we did last year have definitely paid off.

We thought we would end the South American part of our blog with a short summary of facts about our time here.

Where we have visited (chronological):

BRAZIL
Rio De Janeiro
Iguazu Falls

ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires
Ushuaia & Tierra Del Fuego
Antarctica
El Calafate & Perito Moreno Glacier
El Chalten & Mt Fitzroy

CHILE
Puerto Natales & Torres Del Paine
Punta Arenas

ECUADOR
Quito
Otovalo
Galapagos Islands
Latacunga & Quilotoa Loop
Baños
Riobamba & Alausi
Cuenca
Vilcabamba
Loja

PERU
Piura
Lima
Nazca & the Nazca Lines
Arequipa & the Colca Canyon
Cusco, the Sacred Valley & Macchu Piccu
The Amazon Basin (Manu National Park)
Puno and the Reed & Taquila Islands (Lake Titicaca)

BOLIVIA
Copacabana & Isla Del Sol (Lake Titicaca)
La Paz
Sucre
Potosi & the Silver Mines
Uyuni & Salt Flats

CHILE
San Pedro De Atacama

ARGENTINA
Salta
Mendoza

CHILE
Santiago
Easter Island

How we have travelled:
Since arriving in Rio de Janeiro we have travelled (mostly by bus) over 20,000 miles, which is the same distance as London to Sydney.... and then back again! We have spent 185 hours travelling by bus (that's nearly 8 solid days mostly on rickety public buses!), 30.5 hours on planes and 440 hours on different boats (over 18 days). We have made 10 border crossings, some much more pleasant than others and visited 7 separate countries in 2 different continents (Antarctica being the other!). We have been to 16 separate UNESCO World Heritage sites, stayed at altitudes in excess of 5km above sea level and experienced temperatures ranging between -20oC and +37oC. Our favourite places have been Antarctica, the Galapagos, Easter Island, the Iguazu Falls, Rio de Janeiro and the Quilotoa Loop.

Our accommodation has largely been in hostels, ranging from 2 pounds 50p to 6 pounds a night in private rooms in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and between 7 and 9 pounds in a 4-bed dorm in Chile and Argentina. We have journeyed by foot, car, boat, bus, plane, motorized canoe, zodiac, horse, jeep and bikes. In Chile and Argentina we cooked for ourselves in the hostel kitchens and in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia it was cheaper and easier to (gulp!) eat out. We have learned to adapt to living standards far different to what we are used to which has been eye opening and testing at times but on the flipside they have given us some of our most memorable moments. There is very little that shocks or disgusts us anymore! The sad part is we are probably going to miss it!

Today we finished in Santiago with a celebratory almuerzo, topped off with a glass of Chilean wine and the traditional drink called Pisco Sour. We feel very nostalgic. So for now, hasta la vista America Del Sur! Hello to new adventures and new countries!

Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

2008-06-19T22:31:00.011+01:00

On Sunday morning we were up at 5.30am and in a taxi back to Santiago airport for our flight to Easter Island (Rapa Nui). We bought the tickets with money Ash's Uncle had given to us celebrate our engagement. At 8am we boarded our 767 LAN flight and flew 5 hours, 4,000km west, out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Right from the outset we were both struck by how remote a place we were travelling to. We saw nothing but ocean for nearly 5 hours out of the plane windows!

Easter Island is one of the remotest places on Earth, famous for it's stone Moai heads made centuries ago by the Island's Polynesian inhabitants. It is 3,700km from the nearest main landmass (the Chilean coastline) and it is funny to think that to get further from civilisation you have to go into space! As we headed in we had a full view of the small, green island (known locally as Rapa Nui) which is only 17km long, 11km at it's widest point and covers an area of 173 square kilometres... that's half the size of the Isle of Wight! The climate in Easter Island is subtropical so the weather was warm and humid as we stepped off the plane; noticeably different from the coldness of Santiago. We had been told that the best way to secure accommodation on the Island was at the airport where all the local hostel owners come to greet arriving passengers so while waiting for our bags we wandered around the different stands in the tiny airport and settled for a little family-run hostel called Ana Rapu, close to the ocean. After transferring to our hostel and dumping our bags we walked into the tiny town of Hanga Roa (the only inhabited place on the island). As it was a Sunday, almost everything was closed, including all the tour operators whom we had hoped to visit to get on a day tour for the following day. We grabbed some lunch in one of the few cafes open before deciding to hire a scooter and take ourselves around some of the Island for the afternoon. Thankfully we decided to let Ash have a trial run because he got on the scooter, zoomed across the road and straight into the curb... his legs were too long for the scooter and he found it difficult to ride. It was a quick and easy decision NOT to take the scooter. We opted instead for the safer, more familiar 4x4 jeep and feeling very embarrassed, we headed off. Ash was glad to be away from the hire place... with all his mountain biking experience he thought driving a little moped would be a synch! Bi tried to be supportive but in the end had to fall over with laughter! We drove out of the town and headed towards the centre of the island to see some of the archaeological sites there. Easter Island has a beautiful and unique landscape that was made by the eruption of 3 large now-dormant volcanoes several million years ago. The land is very green and covered in a mixture of palm trees and eucalyptus. The coastline is truly spectacular, very reminiscent of the best parts of the Cornish coast and as the island is so remote the waves from the Pacific are enormous (and very popular for surfing), crashing over the coastline and spraying plumes of water high into the air as far as the eye can see.

Apart from the main road between Hanga Roa and Anakena (at the opposite end of the island) the roads are all unmade and extremely bumpy, so we were very glad to be in a 4x4 and not on a little scooter! We toured the West side of the Island and our first stop in the afternoon was Pauna Poa, an old quarry where the Polynesians extracted the red stone to carve the red Moai hats and top knots. We headed further inland and stopped at Ahu Akivi to see our first Moai heads, 6 of them which had been uprighted and restored to their former glory. They were spectacular and we had them all to ourselves! It was great to be finally sat relaxing on Easter Island looking at these splendid statues... it was going to be a memorable trip. After taking many photos, we headed further around the island and visited a lava cave before heading back along the west coast line towards Hanga Roa to see the moai heads at Tahai, just north of the town. As it was not quite sunset, we decided to head out to the Southern tip of the island and drove up to the enormous 324m deep dormant volcano crater of Rano Kau. It has a lagoon in the centre and is one of the highlights of the Island. We sat on the crater lip looking over the island and out to the Pacific and watched the beautiful sunset. We then quickly got the car down off the volcano before it got dark. You cannot get vehicle insurance on Easter Island and therefore have to take full responsibility for paying for any damage to any vehicle you hire. We decided we would not risk driving on the bumpy, narrow road in the dark! We spent the rest of the evening cooking ourselves a gourmet dinner of spaghetti and packet sauce with an onion added for flavour. It is outrageously expensive to buy anything on the Island and supplies are very basic and all imported so there is not a lot of choice as far as cooking and eating is concerned, especially when you are on a budget!

On Monday we awoke to a nice breakfast of Papaya, pancakes and bread and jam! We dashed out by 9.00 am to get to a tour agency and join a tour but they were all full and we had to reserve a place for Tuesday. This turned out to be in our favour as we ended up touring the whole Island in a jeep by ourselves and it was without a doubt the best way to do it. With no tours, we quickly headed to a vehicle hire shop and got ourselves a shiny little red Suzuki Jimny jeep for 24 hours before they were all gone. En route out of the town we stopped at the local market and purchased provisions for a picnic lunch. We started out along the coast as we headed out to tour the East side of the Island. The scenery was so stuning that we had to keep stopping the car to get out and absorb it and to watch the enormous waves crashing into the coastline. After a little time along the coast we headed inland, diagonally across the island to a pretty beach and Maori site called Anakena. It was like a tropical oasis.. a lovely green picnic area adorned with palm trees, a small beach and row of 6 maori heads which faced inland. It was such a beautiful place and we literally had it to ourseleves (the beauty of not being on a tour) so we decided to have our picnic lunch there... avocado and tomato rolls and a tub of pringles. After lunch we set out on a 2 hour walk along the coastline before jumping back in the jeep, heading inland slightly and walking up to the Ano Roi volcano which sits in the middle of the Island and affords lovely 360 degree views across the whole of Easter island. For the remainder of the afternoon we followed the coastline around the whole of the east coast along the bumpy, pot hole filled roads stopping at the various Maori sites along the way. The most spectacular site of the day was Tongariki where 15 huge Maori statues stand proudly in a row, their backs to the ocean. As with all the other sites, we had this one all to ourselves. In fact, it felt like we had the whole island to ourselves as we hardly saw anybody else. It made for a really special and memorable experience. We continued along the coast stopping at smaller sites before arriving back in time to watch the sunset from the high vantage point of our hostel in Hanga Roa. We managed to see all but one of the archaeological sites that Easter island has to offer, the Rano Ranuku volcano so we decided to fake a sicky and cancel our tour and save the 50 pounds. We decided it would be a nice idea to head out early in the morning and visit the volcano at sunrise before returning the jeep at 9.30m. We cooked ourselves a meal of packet tomato soup with the left over spaghetti thrown in... it was actually very nice... we then called it a night feeling pooped!

We were up at 6.30am and on our way to Rano Ranuku volcano by 7am. It was pitch black as the sun does not rise here until about 7.30am. When we reached the site it was still dark so we parked the jeep on some cliffs and sat and waited for the sun to rise over the Pacific. At daybreak we drove into the area of Rano Ranuku, parked and walked up and around the crater which was spectacularly littered with loads of Maori heads. The Maori heads on Easter Island were carved from volcanic rock on the slopes of the Rano Ranuku volcano but there are about 350 still scattered across the side of the volcano which never made it out to their final destinations on the Island. We had the place to ourselves, again, and it was a real highlight. We spent a good hour marvelling at the many statues, some still attached to the crater as they had not been fully carved. We took silly pictures and took in the scenery around us before returning to Hanga Roa to hand back our little Jeep. We decided that having covered all of the Island we would spend the rest of the day relaxing around Hanga Roa. We had our breakfast, which the owner refused to serve us before 9am (!), and headed out on a walk a long the coast. Ash had talked about doing some diving, and having found the main dive centre, within an hour we were unexpectedly putting on wet suits and dive gear for a scuba dive off the coast. We decided that a scuba dive would top off our experience of the Island quite spectacularly and it really did. We headed out with an instructor to a spot just off the coast near Hanga Roa called Anchors Reef. It is called this due to the many 19th century anchors that sit at the bottom around the reef at a depth of 24 metres. We backwards rolled off the boat and down we went. There are not a lot of big fish to see where we dived, it was more scenic diving with clear water, beautiful coral and colourful fish and we loved it. It was like swimming in an aquarium. We had two large jack fish about the length of Bi's arms follow us and playfully weave in and out of us for the duration of the 45 minute dive. We also saw lots of moray eels, schools of large sunset wrasses, flounder, lots of trumpet fish, a scorpion fish, beautiful coral, lots of old anchors and a large maori head that was used in a Kevin Costner film.. not an original but still quite a sight to see under water.

After the dive, we sat and had a picnic before walking up to the museum to learn about the Island and the theories behind the Maori statues. We finished off the day with a meal out. Seafood is the speciality here and Ash took the opportunity to try Ceviche, a dish of raw fish which is very popular here in many parts of South America and something he had not been game enough to try in Peru. It came served in a huge shell. Bi livened up her salad with a big strawberry daiquari and we both sat and reminisced about what a fabulous experience Easter Island has been. It will definitely be one of the major highlights of our time in South America.

On Wednesday morning we had a few hour on the island before catching our 4 hour flight back to Santiago, Chile. We have just a few days left here in South America before we head out to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

More Mendozan Wine & west to Santiago

2008-06-16T22:35:00.004+01:00

On Friday, our last day in Mendoza, we decided to hire a car to visit the more famous wineries in the Lujan de Cuyo region. Our little silver Corsa was dropped at our hotel at 9.30am (aah the beauty of five star!). It was a little daunting driving for the first time in nearly 5 months, on the manic streets of a South American city and on the wrong side of the road! After some careful navigation from Bi we found the main road out of the city and breathed easy as we headed in the right direction towards the wine region. After 20 kms we turned off the main road and instantly the scenery changed to sweeping views of vineyards which stretched towards the magnificent, snow capped Andes mountains lining the border between Chile and Argentina. The roads were quiet (a good thing for when Bi took over at the wheel so Ash could drink to his hearts content) and the weather was perfect. Ash had sought advice from the wine-buying department at Waitrose on which wineries to visit and we headed first for the largest winery in Mendoza, the Norton Bodega. On arrival we were told that the winery was closed and that there were no tours running but after some pleading they agreed to give us a tour of the winery and tasting at 4.30pm. What a result! What we didn't know when we set out was that you need to make prior appointments with security to visit most of the wineries in this region. Luckily we managed to sweet talk our way into most of them.... despite being dressed like we were about to go on a long hike and looking like we probably couldn't even afford to buy a bottle of coke!

Our second stop was the Chandon winery where we were taken into a lovely and modern building, given a glass of complimentary champagne, and sat down to a very good local red wine tasting (called 'Latitud 33')... the Tempranillo was delicious so we picked up a bottle to drink in Fiji along with a bottle of Champangne. Although Mendoza is the best part of the world for Malbec, we still found it to be too bitter for our taste no matter which winery it came from. The next winery we visited was called Dolium. We really only stopped there just for the heck of it but what a lovely find it turned out to be.... one of our favourites in fact. We received a lovely warm welcome from the Italian owner and she showed us into the winery that she had set up with her husband. It was a tiny operation, producing only 40,000 litres of wine a year and with little advertising. Her son took us on a tour of the winery, taking us underground to see the main fermentation and maturation tanks where we were able to taste straight from the tanks! We tasted wine from this year's grape harvest, including a spectacular 08 Malbec still in the tank which was as far as we were concerned, perfect for drinking already. Our guide told us that it was a superb harvest and this 08 Malbec would be a Gran Reserva (their best wine). We had some more tasting and picked up another bottle for our collection and they gave us a lovely touring map of the Mendoza wine regions!

After a homemade picnic sitting in the car overlooking the vineyards and Andes mountains we visited the Septima winery, one of the bigger in Mendoza where we took yet another tour (we think we're ready to set up our own winery now!!!) and tasting before heading to another very small winery across the road called Sottano. We had a tour and a tasting on a glass floor above the barrel cellar (and yes... we bought another bottle!). We then headed to Norton for our 4.30pm appointment to finish off our winery tour. The complex looked like a country club and had a massive vineyard which is understandable considering the winery produces a huge 10 million litres of wine a year. We became a little conscious of our attire in such prestigious surroundings and gulped a little as we were welcomed into the building with a glass of champagne... they opened the bottle especially for us! After an interesting tour which included a tour of their inner cellar containing bottles of wine dating back to 1959, we had our final tasting of the day; lucky because Ash was about to fall over! We then returned back to our apartment for our last night in Mendoza and Ash celebrated the Argentinian way... by cooking a massive steak and drinking a fabulous bottle of wine!

On Saturday we sadly checked out of our beloved apartment and headed to Mendoza airport where we caught an hour flight to Santiago. The weather was perfect so we had spectacular views over the heavily snow capped Andes from the plane, including a fly-past of Aconcagua, which at 6,962m is one of the seven summits, the highest mountain in the Andes and the highest in the world outside the Himalayas. It was a real treat. On arrival in Santiago airport we were completely mobbed by scores of taxi drivers all offering lifts into town. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and bartering we took a taxi to our accommodation in the city centre, the Andes Hostel. We were disappointed to be going back into a hostel after our luxurious apartment in Mendoza but to our surprise the hostel turned out to be really nice.... exceptionally clean, very warm, cosy and comfortable... and nice room mates! Santiago is very developed and has a European feel with both modern and colonial buildings and streets lined with restaurants and modern shops. We could quite easily be in Spain. After taking a walking through the city centre, the main plazas and craft markets we stopped into a coffee bar where Ash's eyes popped out of his head! The coffee bar we had walked into had women serving coffee wearing extremely short, tight dresses and stilletos... Bi said they were dressed just like the girls in Robert Palmers music video 'Simply Irresistable'. It was very amusing and apparently quite the norm in Santiago; supposedly a rebellion against the city's strict catholic past! Bi had a very interesting cappuccino topped with about 15 cms of whipped cream!

In the evening we packed our bags ready for our flight to Easter Island the following day and finished off with a trip to the cinema to see the latest Indiana Jones movie. Despite the cinema looking like something out of the 70s with a tiny screen and those uncomfortable chairs that fling up the minute you stand up, it was great to just do something normal and we sat there feeling very content with our big box of popcorn!

Salta and Mendoza

2008-06-12T15:01:00.020+01:00

On Sunday we took a 10:30am bus (a very nice one with food service and reclining seats.. whoo hooo!) 12 hours across the Andes from Chile to Salta, one of the major cities in Northern Argentina. We nearly had World War III before setting out after some very noisy locals had completely ignored their seat numbers and sat in other people's seats...this had a domino effect and the whole bus was in chaos!!! The border crossing was easy, despite a llama threatening to spit at anyone trying to enter the building.... very effective security! The journey was very slow due to the windy, mountainous road over the Jama Pass. We dropped about 3,000m in altitude. En route, Bi overheard someone say that the road from Mendoza to Santiago was closed due to snow and was panicking for the rest of the journey (8hrs!!!). Our intended route was to head down to Mendoza from Salta, and then take a bus back across the Andes to Santiago (7hrs) for our flight out to Easter Island on Sunday. If we couldn't get a last minute flight out of Mendoza we would be faced with three buses and a four day journey up through Argentina where we had come from, across the Andes and back down to Santiago. We arrived in Salta at 10:30pm, took a risk and booked a luxury bus to Mendoza for the following evening and then took a taxi 1km to our hotel which was very pleasant and not too cold. Our first stop the following morning was the internet cafe where we managed to get a flight from Mendoza to Santiago on Saturday (14th) morning (after much research we decided to pull a shifty and book a return ticket which was half the price of a one way ticket). Happy that we had our passage out of Mendoza, we spent the day wandering the lovely colonial town of Salta and visited the main cathedral. It was such a culture shock being back in civilisation and we were practically skipping through the streets past the modern shops and hotels and the lovely coffee houses with REAL coffee! It was like being back in Europe... or to us, Disneyland! We took the teleferiqo to the top of the hill and admired the view over the city, sitting down in a cafe on the top to enjoy a delicious hot chocolate which after all our hard travelling was bliss... it was REAL milk (as opposed to the powdered stuff we have been living off for nearly 3 months) with a big chunk of chocolate in it! We returned to the city and went for lunch in the Solar de Convento restaurant near the main plaza. It was a lovely and charming restaurant (quite the opposite to what we both looked like when we walked in)... complimentary pink champagne, bread and canapes on arrival and we sat down to a lunch of Argentine steak for Ash and Wild Mushroom Pasta with real parmesan cheese (heaven!!) for Bi and a really good local wine called Manterello. Ash was nearly close to tears eating an amazing steak, as opposed to llama and chicken legs... we have both missed our food and wine so much on this trip! We have a new-found appreciation for the things we have so often taken for granted back home. At 4pm we boarded a first class bus (fully reclining leather seats.. like club class) for our 16 hr journey down to Mendoza.

We arrived in Mendoza on Tuesday morning and took a taxi to our hostel. Our hearts sank... it was a dark, seedy bar with rooms above it and nothing like it was described in the guide book... not uncommon!! Our room was not ready (this turned out to be in our favour) so we dumped our bags and headed into the city centre to hunt for alternative digs! Mendoza isn't quite as we expected. We both had visions of a small rustic town surrounded by vineyards but it is actually a fairly sizeable, albeit lovely city very reminiscent of Buenos Aires. We passed lovely shops and lots of wonderful delis which inspired us to cook and this led to the idea of finding a private apartment for our 4 nights here. We checked with the local tourist information for some recommendations and then with a list in hand, we walked about 5 miles around Mendoza, checking out different apartments which were all dingy and horrible. Bi's heart was on the pavement by this point and she was getting very cranky! Eventually, at the point of giving up and returning to our dingy hostel we came upon the Park Hyatt 5* Apartments. We walked in and asked to see an apartment... mainly just for a laugh.. and were told we could upgrade to the Executive Suite for the same price as a normal apartment. Oh WOW! We were blown away by the suite and within 20 minutes of looking around it we decided that was it, enough was enough, after nearly 5 months of really roughing it we deserved to splash out on some luxury and so we did. It's still very cheap by English standards at 54 pounds a night including buffet breakfast but it actually wasn't an easy decision to make because we had lived off that amount of money over a week in Ecuador and Bolivia. We are both suffering a bit with reverse culture shock as we have seen so much poverty over the past few months and lived so simply and we really did feel guilty about splashing out!

So, we walked back to our dingy hostel to collect our bags. When we arrived back at the apartments the reception staff looked mortified by the sight of us entering their lovely hotel. We were wearing all our dirty hiking clothes.. the same ones for two days due to our bus journey, our trainers were covered in red sand and squeaked all the way across the polished floor and we were carrying our big and very filthy yellow rucksacks! They made us pay the whole bill up front... ummh.. wonder why?! However, nothing could take away from our happiness ... we have polished floor boards, central heating, a big living room, dining area, kitchen, bathroom and king size bedroom all with cable TV and have access to a spa, sauna, gym, restaurant and room service woohoo! It's like having our own city apartment and we keep going on and on and on about it because it the polar opposite of what we have experienced in South America so far! We went to the enormous Carrefour hypermarket in the afternoon and stocked up with great food and Mendozan wine which we will be enjoying for the rest of the week. Being in an apartment gives a good feel for what it is like to live in an Argentinian city.

On Wednesday we caught a bus 30 minutes out to the Maipu region of Mendoza to visit the wineries and olive groves that this area is famous for. We hired some bikes to cycle between the wineries, and although they were mechanically sound the saddles were like concrete! We started by visiting the Museo Del Vino, a museum dedicated to this region's wine production. We walked into the museum (also a functioning winery) and were just knocked off our feet by the superb smell of grapes, wine and the barrels. It was like Seventh Heaven! We visited their small but interesting museum dedicated to the production of wine over the years (including several cowhide grape presses.. not for the vegetarians!) and after trying the local wine we were given a tour of the vineyards and wine production process. The vineyards were beautiful, stretching out as far as we could see with views to the huge, snowcapped Andean mountains in the distance. It was fascinating to be taken through the wine production process, from separating the grapes from the vines to seeing the different presses, fermentation and maturation vats and finally the Frenck oak barrels that the wines are aged in.

After visiting the museum we headed to a local chocolaterie, liqueur maker and deli where we tried some (distinctly average) local products. The cycling was fabulous though... once we were out of the main Maipu centre the roads were wide, fairly quiet and lined with tall trees with their leaves changing colour (as it is late Autumn here). We cycled past fields of vineyards and olive groves with more great views to the distant mountains. We felt as if we were back on a normal holiday! We cycled to a very pretty converted farmhouse for lunch called Almacen De Sur, where we had a fantastic but very rich two course meal of stone-baked breads with balsamic and olive oil, steak for Ash, pasta for Bi and creme brulee. After lunch we cycled to our furthest point, the Carinae winery where we had another tour and had some more tastings. We have decided that the locally produced Malbec here is a little spicy and bitter for our taste; we much prefer the smoother Syrahs, Cabernets and blends. In fact, the Carinae Syrah was great, so Ash splashed out on a bottle to be opened in a couple of years! We then visited the Laur Olive Grove and Press and it was very interesting to see the production of local olive oil... not the smallest production at 2 million litres a year! We headed back and stopped in at the very modern Tempus Alba winery where we sat on their sunny roof terrace drinking wine and overlooking the vineyards and olive groves before cycling back to Maipu to take our bus home to our nice (warm!) apartment. We laughed in the evening at what a contrast the whole day had been... just a week ago we were filthy, starving, freezing and very grouchy in Bolivia and now we were sat in our 5* suite having spent the whole day boozing and eating!!

With two days left here before our flight to Santiago we are relaxing and making the most of our apartment and facilities today and are going to have a wander around the city, and who knows, maybe we'll drink some more wine! Tomorrow we have decided we will visit Luján de Cuyo, another wine region of Mendoza where there are bigger, more well known wineries such as Norton and Chandon. We are both now starting to feel a little sad that our journey in South America is drawing to a close.

San Pedro & The Atacama Desert

2008-06-10T20:51:00.012+01:00

After some decent food and a comfortable, albeit chilly night's sleep (we´re back in 6 bed dorms as Chile is expensive) we were up early for an actioned packed Saturday in San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is a small and lovely town with a bit of a dusty wild-west feel to it as it is situated at 2,400m in the middle of the Atacama desert, the driest place on the planet. It's a far cry from Bolivia.... significantly more developed with paved roads, street lights, finished buildings and nice cafes and restaurants etc. We decided that we would not hang around San Pedro for too long as we wanted to get down to Mendoza for the good wine and steak we had been hearing about and only have a week until we have to be in Santiago for our Easter Island flight. We were near the Argentinian border and decided we would take a bus across to Salta and then down to Mendoza (12hrs and 12hrs). As the bus only leaves on a Sunday, Tuesday and Friday we decided to book 3 almost back-to-back tours for Saturday covering all the major sights and actvities of San Pedro so that we could get out on the Sunday morning bus.

At 9am, we were collected and driven about 10 minutes out of town to the Valle de La Muerte (death valley) to try our hand at sandboarding. The Valley was spectacular with bizarre red rock formations which would not have looked out of place on the surface of Mars. We stopped at a huge sand dune, trudged our way to the top and after some brief instruction we jumped on our boards and headed down! Well, we say headed down... we both went about 3 feet before going headfirst into the sand! Luckily it was very deep and soft so it made for a comfortable landing. We had 3 hours of tuition and by the end we were both doing pretty well, managing to board down the whole sand dune and pick up quite a bit of speed. At 12:30pm we were back in San Pedro, had an amuertzo (set lunch) and joined our second tour of the day which was to the Valle De La Luna (Valley of the Moon). It is aptly named as the valley indeed looks like a proper moonscape. We visited several spectacular viewpoints before heading into the Valley De La Luna National Park where we took a walk through a salt and clay canyon with bizarre rock formations before climbing to the top of the valley to watch the sunset, eating our picnic dinner of banana´s and yoghurt! As the sun dropped below the horizon we watched the surrounding Andean mountains famously turn from yellow to orange to pink to red. We arrived back to San Pedro just in time to grab a hot choccy and then pick up our final tour... star gazing with a french Astronomer! We were taken by bus out to the middle of the desert where there is no light or air pollution. San Pedro is famous for having some of the clearest night skies in the world and they are completely amazing... astronomers come from all over the world to see them here and there are numerous Western-owned observatories. The first part of our tour involved us looking through enormous telescopes at many different objects in the night sky. It was amazing to see the moon in such size and clarity, with the craters all clearly visible. We also saw Mars, Saturn and it's many rings, gas nebulae, star clusters, jewel stars and constellations... it was genuinely fascinating. Afterwards we were given an explanation of the many different stars and constellations and tips on how to recognise them followed by a much needed hot chocolate. It was freezing in the desert at night! We returned cold but happy to our 6 bed dorm for the night before getting up the following morning to take a bus across the border to Salta, Argentina (12hrs).

Salar De Uyuni - The Bolivian Salt Flats

2008-06-06T22:54:00.011+01:00

On Tuesday morning we awoke hearing two tourists outside our room discussing an impromptu 48 hour nationwide public transportation strike... our hearts sank! Bolivia is a troubled country at the moment with 3 states within the country having just declared their independence in protest against the rule of the current President. Strikes and roadblocks are becoming increasingly common and there is even talk of a possible civil war by August (so we are glad to now be out of the country!). A very jumpy US tourist managed to panic half the guests in our hotel with stories of blockades, bogus police scams and being chucked off buses in remote locations. Determined to leave, we immediately hit the town to find out exactly what was going on .... there really is nothing to do in Potosi apart from visit the mines and freeze! We were booked on the first bus out of Potosi and as luck would have it, we were able to escape the strike action. We were also saved by the fact that we were travelling on a remote road rather than a main highway. We took a taxi to the bus station and were relieved to see a group of tourists standing waiting for the same bus.... safety in numbers! Our small dirty bus departed late but it turned out to be the first and last bus to leave Potosi for 9 hours. After 20 minutes we reached a blockade that was being established but which because of our timing we were able to walk across and change to a different bus that headed 6 hours south west to the remote town of Uyuni. We were so pleased that this was our last Third World public bus and as ever it was full of adventure!! The very bumpy and cramped journey was again full of spectacular scenery, making its way across the high Andean altiplano past high mountains.

Uyuni is a bland town situated in the desert and is completely flat and very dusty, with wide roads and shabby buildings. After a surprisingly nice dinner of pizza and pasta we went to our hotel for a cold night's sleep. At 3,660m altitude, Uyuni completely freezes at night as any heat escapes out of the atmosphere because of it's situation in the desert. We were promised a heater which turned out to be a gas cylinder that made our eyes burn so we had to turn it off! They came to reclaim it after an hour anyway! After a poor night's sleep, we awoke the following morning extremely cold and grouchy both proclaiming 'get me to Chile!'.

After breakfast (fresh bread for the first time in weeks... hooorah!) we joined our 3 day tour of the Bolivian salt flats, recommended as one of the highlights in Bolivia. We chose a company called Andes Salt Expeditions who provided a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser, guide, driver and cook for our expedition. We drove out of the town and made a first stop at the train 'cemetery' where there were many rusting, abandoned train wrecks, some which had been allegedly destroyed and looted by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We then visited the Cooperative Rosario, a small plant for extracting the salt from the flats, before driving onto the Salt Flats (Salar De Uyuni). The Salt Flats is a desert made entirely of salt that cover 12,000 square kilometres, created by the retreat of an ancient ocean. The flats contain estimated 64 billion tonnes of salt and are an amazing bright white that stretch as far as the eye can see. We stopped to take some photos on mounds of salt that had been collected before heading for a llama barbeque lunch at a 'Salt Hotel' (literally a hotel made entirely of salt blocks). This hotel is now disused and serves only as a museum. After lunch we were able to take some very funny pictures owing to the total lack of perspective in the desert. We took photos showing us standing on coke bottles, holding a crowd in the palm of our hands and sitting up against our guidebooks! Bi insisted on getting a picture squishing Ash with her foot, if just to set the standard for life going forwards!

In the afternoon we visited Isla De Pescado (Fish Island) in the middle of the flats, a hilly outpost surrounded by a flat, white sea of hexagonal salt tiles. The Island is populated by cacti that grow up to 10 metres high. We climbed to the top of the island and had a marvellous panorama of the entire salt flats. We then headed another 2 hours across to the sides of the flats to spend the night in the Salt Hotel, which to our delight turned out to be a few degrees warmer than our previous deep-freeze hotel, albeit the base of our bed was made from salt blocks!

On Thursday we were up at 6am and spent most of the day in the 4x4. The other members of our group were very glad Ash plugged in his iPod as we were able to avoid another 8 hours of Bolivian pan-pipe music! During the day we visited the Red Lagoon (Laguna Colorada), and passed through the Siloli Desert. In the afternoon we saw the famous 'Rock Tree' that inspired Salvador Dali. That night was particularly memorable... we stayed in an extremely basic 6-bed concrete cabin situated at 4,300m. Inside the temperature measured a balmy -1oC whilst outside the temperature plummeted to -20oC. We rugged up to the hilt in all the clothes we had packed for our whole trip... Bi wore 2 hats, gloves, a buff, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 long sleeved shirts and 2 jumpers! We climbed into our sleeping bags, lobbed blankets over the top and hid under for a very poor night's sleep.... we have never been so happy to be woken up at 5am to get the hell out of somewhere! We boarded the 4x4 and made our way to 5,000m (the highest we have ever been) to visit the 'Sol de Manana', a geyser basin covered with steaming, bubbling mud pots and fumaroles. The area is a hive of volcanic activity and smelt strongly of sulphur. We stopped for breakfast outside but it was so cold we decided to abandon it and get back in the vehicle! After visiting another lagoon, coloured green from asbestos and magnesium, we made our way to the Bolivian/Chilean border and descended 2,000m to the comparatively hot San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. We are so happy to be back in a more developed country! It's amazing that you can simply cross a border and experience such a difference in infrastructure, people and general living standards. We had a fabulous, hugely earned 3 course almuerzo (lunch) although we cringed at the much higher prices having lived so cheaply for the past 2.5 months! We spent the afternoon wandering the small town, booking tours and buses, and planning our final few weeks in South America. We have decided to head back into Argentina to visit Salta and travel down to Mendoza to drink great wine and eat huge steaks (well, for Ash!) before heading back across the Andes into Santiago for our flight to Easter Island on June 15th.

Sucre, Potosi and the Silver Mines

2008-06-02T20:49:00.000+01:00

On Friday morning we left the hospital and took a 45 minute flight with 'Aerosur' to Sucre, the judicial capital of Bolivia. The flight was an interesting experience. La Paz airport is situated at 4,200m on the altiplano above the city and is the highest international airport in the world. It's not often you take off at over half your cruising altitude! We needed the whole runway to take off and about 100m off the ground the plane had to bank and turn tightly to avoid the surrounding mountains! The landing was equally as exciting/nerve-racking as the plane had to again negotiate it's way through the mountains in order to line up correctly with the runway at Sucre. Despite the excitement and the fact that our plane was about 40 years old, the flight was fine and we were very glad we had paid the 35 pounds each to take the 45min flight so as to avoid an unpleasant 18 hour mountainous local bus journey!

We transferred to our hotel and headed straight for the main town squre, the Plaza 25 de Mayo where we boarded the 'Dino Truck' to visit the fossilised dinosaur tracks at Cal Orck'o, just outside the city and next to an enormous quarry. The truck was exceedingly touristy, with hard wooden benches, open sides and mock dinosaur claws on the roof. We were guided around a small, modern visitors centre laden with numerous lifesize dinosaur models (complete with tacky roaring sounds) before heading to the main quarry wall which contains the footprints. The huge wall used to lie horizontal as tropical marshland and has been pushed vertical over the last 68 million years. Criss-crossed all over the wall are different dinosaur footprints which we spent time examining through binoculars... it was quite fascinating. The wall is of great paleoentological significance as it contains more tracks than anywhere else to be found in the world and UNESCO will be designating it a World Heritage Site this year and funding work to preserve the footprints.

In the afternoon we wandered the streets of the city. Sucre is known as 'La Ciudad Blanca' due to the number of old white colonial buildings and is designated a World Heritage Centre by UNESCO. The centre is beautiful and replete with splendid colonial architecture, churches and green open parks (one of which bizarrely contains a replica of the Eiffel Tower). It is also full of lawyers offices as it is the judicial capital of Bolivia and appears considerably more wealthy than many of the places we have visited so far. We took a late lunch in a small cafe on the main square, sitting up against one of the windows opening onto the square. We ordered soup and a plate of chips and as we finished a scruffily-dressed little girl of about 7 years old approached the window begging. Assuming she was after money we both said 'Vamos! Vamos!' to ask her to go away but she persisted. Ash suddenly realised that she was actually asking for the five chips we had left on our plate so we let her have them. We looked on as she took them across the road and shared them out with her mother and three younger siblings who wolfed them down! It was a really sad sight to see so Bi quickly held up her bowl of soup and offered it to the mother who very quickly pulled out a plastic container from her shawl and brought it over. We watched as she took her family into the centre of the park, sat down on the ground and shared out the soup. After we left the restaurant Ash stopped at a stall and bought a big packet of biscuits and took them over to the family. They were beaming!

In the evening, the city was totally buzzing and we wandered around the central Sucre market, and as always it was fascinating to see the varied food stalls. The stall holders love to fiddle and play around with the food to make it look more presentable such as peeling the onions and garlic, halving the avocados, making swirly patterns all over the orange peels, pulling apart herbs into perfectly neat piles.. they just can't leave things as they are... even on the crisps stand they are regularly running their blackened hands through the produce to fluff up the display. We topped off the evening with a decent meal before heading back to our hotel to get rugged up in our woollies and into bed. Very few places have heating here, not even the expensive hotels and so it can get quite chilly in the night.

On Saturday we decided to skip our morning bus to Potosi and stay another day relaxing in Sucre. We had a well earned lie in, took a gentle wander through the streets, ate good food (we found a nice Dutch-run cafe and stuck to it for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and did something very normal.... we both got haircuts for 1 pound 75p each, which we sorely needed! You do indeed get what you pay for!!

On Sunday, after an exciting breakfast of a banana and an anti-parasite tablet each (!) we took a 3.5 hr bus ride to Potosi, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world's highest city at 4,060m (as opposed to La Paz which is the World's highest capital). The journey took us through high-sided mountains and deep canyons, past basic and dusty villages where the locals were out herding their animals and washing their clothes in the streams. When we arrived at Potosi's main bus station our hearts sank as the city appeared to be very basic and under-developed, especially in comparison to Sucre. We took a short (unavoidably unlicensed) taxi ride to the hotel in the colonial centre and were relieved to be dropped off with all our belongings, and equally relieved to find the centre to be pretty and peaceful.

Potosi is set against the backdrop of a rainbow-coloured mountain called 'Cerro Rico' and the city's primary attraction is a visit to the Silver Mines (not as exotic as it sounds!). After settling into our extremely cold hotel we wandered around the town although being a Sunday it was very quiet and nothing was open. It gets extremely cold here in the night, so we were rugged up in all our thermals, hats and gloves when we climbed into bed in our non-heated room!

This morning we visited the Silver Mines, which are buried high above the city in the Cerro Rico mountain. The experience was shocking, gruelling and memorable... exactly as described in our guidebook. At 8.30am we were taken by bus to a house where we changed into protective clothing which included jacket, trousers, boots, bandana (to breathe through), helmet and light. We were then taken to the Miners' Street Market where we purchased dynamite (!), fuses, coca leaves and soft drinks as gifts for the miners. The miners chew on the coca leaves to help deal with the lack of ventilation in the shafts. From the market we visited a mineral processing plant where we saw silver, zinc and lead being refined from the ore extracted from the mountain. We were then driven up to Cerro Rico where we entered the mine for around 2 hours. We made our way into the dark mine, scrambling and crawling our way through low, narrow, unventilated and dirty shafts, and climbed rickety ladders. It was exhausting and claustrophobic work, especially with the lack of air and myriad of chemicals that made breathing difficult. Arsenic, silicon, asbestos and carbon monoxide are all heavily present in the air, so much so that the miners often die within 10 years of entering the mine suffering from silicosis pneumonia. It was genuinely stifling and distinctly unpleasant and frightening when we were crawling through tight spaces hardly wider or taller than our bodies on all fours. We descended 3 levels into the mine and saw various groups of miners hard at work. We saw one family of Father and 3 sons all shovelling ore into baskets and carts. Although it is illegal to work in the mines under the age of 18, there is no formal policing so children as young as 8 can be found working as gophers. Our guide started at the age of 10 through to 15 and now suffers from silicosis. His father was killed in an accident in the mine 2 years ago. There are currently 15,000 miners working as a cooperative, with each miner reaping in the rewards of his own find by selling it back to the cooperative. The conditions that they work in are absolutely shocking and safety is non-existent. We were all uncomfortable and couldn't wait to get out, let alone work in there from 8am-6pm, 6 days a week.

The air never tasted so sweet as we exited the mines coughing and spluttering, our hands and protective clothes covered with arsenic. We were relieved to be out and afterwards treated to a lesson in how to set off dynamite! We removed the nitro-glycerine from its wrapper, rolled it into balls with ammonium nitrate, added the fuse, lit the fuse...... took our pictures with the fuse burning before the guides legged it to detonate the dynamite from a safe distance. Typical South America! We returned very tired and grubby, dived into the shower and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around Potosi.

Tomorrow we take an arduous 7 hour bus journey to Uyuni where we will pick up a 3 day jeep tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats and finish by crossing the border into Chile... and sanctuary!