Meera and Amit's Travels

MY TOP LIST

2008-09-15T09:00:00.002-07:00

Having seen many new parts of the world, here is my top list of the experiences on this world journey (as of August 2008):

Favourite country: Ecuador
Most beautiful country: Mongolia
Most travel-friendly country: New Zealand
Most environment-friendly country: New Zealand
Most eco-friendly country: New Zealand
Loveliest people: Ecuador
Most threathening experience: in China
Coldest experience: Mongolia
Hottest experience: Darwin, Australia
Cleanest place: New Zealand
Most polluted place: Beijing
Most humid experience: Singapore
Wettest experience: getting drenched on the 3 hours Lopes Mendes trek in Ilha Grande, Brazil
Heaviest rainfall: Brazil
Best beach: Galapagos Islands (Isla Espanol), Ecuador
Best wildlife: Galapagos Islands
Best snorkelling and swimming: Galapagos Islands (Devil's Crown)
Most powerful waterfall: Foz Iguasu, Argentinian side
Most beautiful sunset: Galapagos Island
Most beautiful star-filled sky: while on deck on the yacht recovering from sea sickness on the Galapagos Island (never seen anything so bright - was like a dream)
Most isolated place: Mongolia
Most surreal place: Galapagos Islands
Most spiritual place: Mongolia
Most colourful experience: Naadam Festival in Mongolia and Rio Carnival in Rio de Janeiro
Best food: Korea, and very close after Singapore
Best steak: Argentina
Worst food experience: Mongolia
Best drink: Green mango shake in Malaysia
Worst drink: Horse milk in Mongolia (tastes like very old, sour milk)
Best group tour: The Amazon trip with Amit, Alex, Judy, David, Helen, Brittany, Paul and Mayuko.
Best hostel: The Amazon Inn, Quito, Ecuador
Worst hostel: Mata Virgem, Ilha Grande, Brazil (seriously DON'T got there)
Best hotel: The Andaman, Datai Bay, Langkawi, Malaysia
Best night out: Salsa night in Quito with the Amazon crew
Country I would most want to live in, if distance was no problem: New Zealand
Countries I could definitely try out: Singapore, Korea, Australia

THE END IS NEAR

2008-09-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

August 08, Hong Kong

We are coming to the end of our journey - and what a journey it has been. It has been full of new and amazing encounters and it has taught us so many new things. On one hand the world has become smaller to us because we have explored so much more of it, and on the other hand it has become bigger because our knowledge has grown, our meetings with people and new cultures and history have opened doors to understanding more of the world and the way people think differently and live life differently to yours.
For me, this journey was not just travelling to see the world. It was a life journey of learning new things about other places, people and ways of thinking as well as learning new things about myself. It was a journey of seeing the world with the most special person by my side. About growing together and taking in the beauty around you together. Now we have memories for life.

To my soul mate, travel partner and best friend - Thank you.

The journey has been the best experience of my life. We had ups and downs on the trip - the downs being Amit's dislocation and restricting him from doing certain things, Tibet being shut when we were going there, the monsoon taking over Nepal so that the Everest/Langtang trek were impossible to do and the China experience (!). But now when we look back, we just laugh at it. All the good outweighed all the unfortunate circumstances in every sense and you can't do everything, you can only strive to do it and you should appreciate what you do manage to do.

I feel a sensational energy from every little experience we have had. I did my first parachute jump, I swam with sea lions, giant turtles, marine iguanas and sharks and sting rays around me. I climbed glaciers and volcanos and Wayna Picchu once again. We lived out of a backpack for months and realised how little you really need in this world and we were fine. We were very well and happy out in the nature. I could go on and on.....

In essence, it has been a fantastic and eye-opening journey and now I am ready to see the "world" we left in England. I am excited to go back to see my family and friends, I am exciting to see how world has changed at home (if it has) and excited about making changes on my return.

Our last night in Honkers with Vishal - and we are still partying...so there will be a very tired Meera on the flight...

HONG KONG

2008-09-15T08:59:00.004-07:00

31 July 08, Hong Kong

Arrived yesterday from Seoul. We are staying with Vishal who has been a great host. He has a 2 bedroom flat in Central and the view from his balcony is cool. It has been eating good Shanghainese food and going to fancy bars. A real expats place and some roads feel like being in Europe.
Yesterday, we went to a bar in Princess Building where (Mayer Brown has an office) - we were not allowed into the bar, as we were all wearing flip flops ; ). So we went for food near Time Square to a Shanghainese place. Great dimsum and spicy. Home at 2AM.

We have been to Victoria Peak by tram overlooking the river and the lights over the water at night. Very pretty. Also been to big shopping centres, the Wang Chai market, lots of bars and restaurants. We also met up with Adrian from my Peru 2003 trip - who currently works in Hong Kong.
I think our days in Honkers will be one big party ; )
.....and they were...:)

SOUTH KOREA

2008-09-15T08:59:00.003-07:00

24 July 08, Seoul

Stormy flight, so had to crash land in another city. Finally landed in Seoul at 6.20AM.
Our experience in South Korea has been a nice surprise for us. We stayed in a hotel Astoria near Dongdaemun. A 3-4 star hotel which we got at a discounted rate - there is some promotion on.

We really like Korea. It is vibrant and lively and people are very friendly - very opposit to what we experienced in Erlian! The people dress trendy and most girls have fringes. We can't believe how little time we have left of our world tour. Over here in Asia, things seem to be thriving. The South East Asian countries are doing well and not yet affected by the world economy.

We had our first Korean BBQ food - so yummy. You get marinated meat - lots of it and they cook it for you on a big round hot plate on your table. It comes with lots of side dishes such as spinach leaves, pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage (Kimmchi), pickled all sorts, the food is delicious.
South Korea is surprisingly modern. The toilet has a machine on it with 14 functions. The taxis have a translation service - you dial a number and someone will pick up who speaks English.
Not as cheap as some Asian countries, but still cheap.

We stayed in a guest house for one night where we met other backpackers such as Amy and Terence.

We went to the 3rd tunnel between South and North Korea - which was educational and sad to hear about. The troubles between the South and North Koreans is so unnecessary. We had gone on a one-day tour. The trip also got us to the ginseng shop - so expensive.

The Korean people are so friendly and respectable. We went to a local restaurant and the owner started speaking to Amit. He went back to his desk and while he was eating, he looked up at Amit and smiled and then handed out some coins, wanting to buy a coffee for Amit. Amit got up and said "Meera, look he has given me money to buy a coffee", when the man saw that he got up and gave Amit some more coins and bought me a coffee too. That was so kind. We had a photo of him and he said "Beckham" and then thought of other English names.

Met up with Sue - Korean local girl who we met through couchsurfing.com . She introduced us to lovely Korean food and showed us how to eat it, loved the Korean pancake and the chicken broth. Had a great time.

27 July 08
Had brunch in Myengdong - the shopping area and then went to Seoul Station to buy our tickets for Gyeng'Ju for the next day. We went sightseeing and visited the National Folk Museum and the Gyeongbokgung Palace. We saw a guard walk/show in old Korean costumes. As we were walking, we were stopped by a really funny Korean guy, who asked if we could take a photo of him. He asked where we were from, and then he mentioned all the international football players and he started singing the national songs of the Italy, Scotland and France. He spoke like a tape recorder and we were just watching him and gobsmacked how funny it was. He told Amit how much he liked Beckham and as he learnt that I was Danish he said - "I like Lego too!" hahahaha - we were entertained. He then bowed to us, while walking away, saying "thank you thank you, see you again, see you in your country".

Went to a shopping mall where the had good deals on watches. Dark blue and silver rado - nice.

In the evening, we had dinner with local Korean Kim - the guy Amit found on couchsurfing.com, in Sincheon. Great food, good price in a trendy student type hangout. Big beers, snacks and yummy Korean dishes. It was really interesting meeting and talking to a local - Kim was really cool and friendly and told us stories of his time in the army (had to tie his legs together every day for 2 years to sleep straight) and his travelling.

28 July 08
Left hotel at 9Am, took taxi to Seoul St. Took the KTX train to Gyeong'Ju via Dongdaemun. Nice clean trains, very comfy, great service. The hostess bow to everyone, and as the AC was not working in our carriage, a conductor told us that we could move to another carriage and then he gave us a ice drenched face towel and a hand fan. Lovely. Train journey was 2,5 hours.
Had lunch in a small local restaurant and took taxi to hotel - 1800 Won.
After checking in, we took a local bus 10 to Bulgaksa Temple (pretty) and then to Seokguram Grotto (buddha statues in granite in a small grotto). Had dinner close to our hostel, very spicy. Hardly anyone speaks English here. All very friendly. You share everything on a big pan. If you don't share - you give a bad impression.

Gyeong'Ju is beautiful - lots of flower fields, tombs, open air museum feel with all the historic building/monuments. So glad we came here.

29 July 08
Went to Tumuli Park which has various tombs with green chocolate hills-like nature. It has the Cheon Ma tomb amongst others. Went on to Gyeong'Ju National Museu, Anapji Pond and the stunning flower gardens. Had lunch in a local place where no one spoke English, luckily there was a man - a customer who was travelled from Seoul who spoke some English and helped us translate the Korean menu. We took the 5.12PM train back to Seoul. Had dinner in Myeongdong.
Last night in Korea.

30 July 08
Left hotel at 11.30AM and took bus to airport. Great shopping in duty free. Had overpricy Korean food which was awful - what a shame! Good 3 hours flight to Hong Kong. Service very good.

ONCE AGAIN IN MONGOLIA...

2008-09-15T08:59:00.001-07:00

20 July 08, Ulaanbator

Yes, it was all a bit of a shock, but we are fine and sorting ourselves out now in Mongolia. we have looked at options and we have decided we want to avoid China, as it might give us a lot of problems again and we don't want to take any more risks. The best option would have been to get the visa again! and then go to Beijing and see the bits we haven't seen yet of China and then go to Hong Kong. But with the visa situation, nothing is guaranteed - how long it will take to get the visa. We met a couple from England who were stuck in Mongolia for 3 weeks waiting for their China visa. So we have decided we will instead go to Korea for 6 - 7 days before we go to Hong Kong. We do not need any visa for Korea and we don't need any visa for Hong Kong. We are planning to fly from Mongolia to Korea on 24th July. Everything is getting back into place again, and we are still laughing at our bad luck with China, and sometimes things are just not meant to be.

We are back in Oyuna hostel and the travellers we met before we headed for China were stunned to see us again. Some, terrified, as they were next to travel to China..

We spent our first night trying to figure out how we could get out of the country by going from travel agency to agency. As we got back to the hostel, we had a power cut and all of us in the hostel sat outdoors in the dark in the court yard just chatting. There were 8 of us - Americans, Danes and Brits. Most were working in China/Korea as English teachers.

We had a good few days to explore Ulaanbator further. We went to Ganden Monastery just near our hostel - it is lovely. Inside one of the temples it has a giant Buddha in golden colour. I managed to sneak a photo of it.
We went to a Thai restaurant with Michael Boedker - the Dane we met in our hostel. We were the only customer along with 4 people sitting at another table. 3 of them were Danish and one was American. One of the Danish girls got up and opened her top and went to the fan/cooler to cool down her front parts, the other Danish girl said "what are you doing", the first one answered "I have sweat between my tits" in Danish, Michael and I laughed, and then the second girl said "they are laughing at you", the first one said "who those there and she looked towards us", and then I answered in Danish "that is because we understand every word of what you are saying". She was so embarrassed and her friends could not stop laughing and the Danish guy with them said "never have I experienced this, this has got to be the funniest moment ever" - you should have been there to see their faces.
On our way home from the restaurant, we had the same 3-4 kids run at us and try to touch our pockets and standing in our ways. They had blocked our way the night before, when we were walking back to our hostel. One of the kids literally grabbed Amit's arms and his pockets and kept trying to hang on to him, Amit could have smacked him one, but he was a 11-13 year old and so he just pushed him off. They were so adamant, I was screaming at them, and passer-bys just looked and walked. Was shocking. I shouted and one kid who was peeing as we walked towards them, well, he peed on my back! My trousers were wet and I was disgusted! What a horribe experience. This we had never come across ever. In the end we managed to walk away from them and crossed the road. We were certain that those young children were "high" on something. Their eyes were all over the place.

We did manage to have a good time too and spent the last two evenings with good meals and drinks in the outdoor bar at the Khan's place where many expats hang out.

Seems we will be heading to Korea. Cannot go to Hong Kong via Russia or China as we need visas for both countries.

DITCHING CHINA FOR KOREA

2008-07-23T00:44:00.006-07:00

21 July, 08, Ulaanbaatar

We have less than 2 weeks left of our world travel and with the Chinese encounter in Erlian, we have no desire to visit China again for a long time.
We have a flight from Hong Kong back to London and there are only 3 options of getting from UB to Hong Kong. Either we fly from UB to Beijing to Hong Kong, UB to Russia to Hong Kong or UB to Korea to Hong Kong. No visas required for Korea - so that is where we are going. No more hassle!

We fly to Korea on the 23rd July night and now we are just going to relax in UB in the boiling heat and blue sky...

TRAVEL ADVICE FOR THE TRANSMONGOLIAN EXPRESS

2008-07-23T00:44:00.004-07:00

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR THE TRANSMONGOLIAN EXPRESS

Journey time
Ulaanbaatar to Beijing - 30 hours (includes 1 hour wait at the Mongolian border and approx. 3-4 hours wait at the Chinese border).

Buying your ticket
It is of course cheapest if you buy the Transmongolian Express tickets yourself directly from the train station ticket office, but tickets are often sold out weeks before the departure date.

Most people (including myself) buy the tickets through an agent. If you buy through an agent in UK for example - it will be very expensive. I have found that it is cheapest to book through an agent in China rather than an agent in Mongolia. The price difference was about US$50!

We booked through http://www.juulchin.mn/ (Mongolian agency - one of the pricier - only know that now!) which cost us US$225 per person one way from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing on the Deluxe class. We had already paid for it, when another agent in China (http://www.oceantravel.cn/) quoted the same ticket for US$178 per person!

Seating/Sleepers in the Transmongolian Express - different classes

There are 3 different classes of travelling on the Transmongolian, which are:
Deluxe class (sleeper)
First class (soft sleeper)
Second class (hard sleeper)

The second class are obviously the cheapest and the price goes up depending on how comfortable you want to be.
In the second class and first class sleeper you share a compartment with other people. Each compartment sleeps 4 people, while the deluxe sleeps 2 people only.
We bought the deluxe sleeper as we did not want to share the compartment with anyone.

In the deluxe sleeper section, we had a lower and an upper bed, a single sofa, a small table, two small tv screens and headphones for each bed. We got clean white sheets and pillows with pillow covers, satin covers and hand towels. We even had a shower/bathroom which we shared with one other couple. We were given a kettle of hot water, cups, tea and coffee and refills whenever needed. The sleeper hed were comfortable and had a protection rail to avoid falling out of the upper bed.

When you book your ticket, make sure you are getting the right ticket you want to buy. When you deal with the agents, it is quite confusing what you are getting. Each of them say different things, so just be on your toes.

The Trains
When you leave Mongolia, you are on the Mongolia train. When you get to the border of China and Mongolia, there is a break for about 1,5 hrs - 3 hrs, when they are changing the train. Basically, you get off the train. The train moves, and the Chinese restaurant carriage is added to the train, and the Mongolian restaurant carriage is taken off. During all this time, you cannot use the toilets on the train - they lock the toilets. You will still be in the same carriage and compartment that you got on when you boarded in Mongolia. There are different versions of the Transmongolian trains. We were on a rather modern one, and very clean. We were impressed.

Restaurant in the Transmongolian Express

The train has a restaurant carriage. It has drinks, alchohol, food, snacks. Beware though, it is not cheap. The Mongolian food carriage has limited food and it is pricier than the Chinese food carriage (Chinese food carriage is only available when you get to the Chinese border, and the Mongolian food carriage is taken off). The menu on the Mongolian food carriage seemed to have a variety of things, but when we wanted to order, they only did a set menu. So basically, the entire train had the same set menu. It was really busy, so you had to book a slot to have your lunch. We booked for 2.30PM, but only managed to be seated for lunch at 3.30PM and had the food at 4PM. So, a good idea to bring your own food if you can. The food carriage can only sit about 4o people, so everything has to be done in slots. We skipped dinner as we didn't want to wait till very late, and the food carriage shuts at 7.30PM. So we lived on pot noodles.
Note: Drinks, especially water is expensive, so bring your own.
Note: You meet a lot of friendly travellers in the food carriage.

Toilet facilities in the Transmongolian Express
We were lucky to have a bathroom with one other couple. It was cleaned twice while we were on the train. Otherwise, you have the public toilets on the train. They are ok, but I suspect that after 10 hours or so, it gets quite dirty. There is toilet paper, but bring your own to be safe.

What to bring on your journey

If you are sleeping in 2nd class or first class, bring toilet paper, hand towel, a cup/mug (you can get free hot water from the stewards on the train) and your own tea bags.
It is very useful (if you want to save money) to bring your own snacks, drinking water, fruits and even pot noodles (we did - remember you can get the hot water on the train), plastic spoons/forks. Bring your camera - there are so many pretty spots, a book or ipod/music as it is a long journey. Many people bring alchohol with them too.

At the border controls
When you are leaving the Mongolian border, the Mongolian police check the trains and take your passports. You are likely to be at the border for 1-2 hours before the train moves again. It is quite pain-less.

Then the train drives off again for about 15-20 minutes, when you get to the Chinese border at Erlian, here the immigration police enters the train, collects the passports and it takes 4 hours before they leave the border to head for Beijing. Now, make sure that your visa is in order.
Our visa WAS in order, but it was not honoured by the Chinese immigration. It is a long story (and we are still very disappointed and angry about the situation, but when it comes to the Chinese immigation police, you cannot do anything!). Make sure that your visa is properly given by the Chinese embassy.

So a 30 hours journey from UB to Beijing should really just have taken 24 hours, but the border control checks adds hours!

TRANSMONGOLIAN EXPRESS TO CHINA DISASTER - DETENTION AND HOUSE ARREST

2008-07-23T00:44:00.001-07:00

19 July, 08, Ulaanbaatar

We had heard a few horror stories, but never imagined it would happen to us.

We left UB early morning on the 17th July to board the Transmongolian Express to Beijing. This 30 hours journey was going to be one of our luxury-train trips, as we had booked a Deluxe cabin with two beds (one lower and one upper berth), a single seater sofa, two small screen-tvs with headphones, a radio and a spring-clean modern toilet with a shower, which we shared with an elder French couple. Yes, it was luxury. The cabin had the best bed and best toilet I had experienced on the entire China/Mongolia trip. No kidding!
The beds were covered with satin sheets and a hostess brought in a kettle of hot water, cups, tea bag and coffee. We felt very comfortable and relaxed in our little luxury-cabin.
The train journey was really nice and scenic. We had so much fun and made new friends on the train (quite a few of them were Scandinavians), until we crossed to the Chinese border and we got pulled off the train. The Chinese immigration said that our Chinese visa was not valid anymore. We disagreed as we had got and paid for double entry to China and we had only entered once. They kept saying our visa was out of date and so we were asked to leave the train with all our luggage. We had already travelled for 12 hours and there was another 16 hours to travel to Beijing. We were taken to the immigration office and they refused us to go back on the train. They detained us and asked us to sign lots of papers in Chinese - which we could not read - and give our finger prints. Who knows what we signed! We had no option! (I was angry and furious - but as Amit calmed me down and explained that they could do anything to us - as we were held in China out in nowhere.) We were then put under house arrest. Two Chinese official walked us to a hotel and we stayed in a suite type of room. There was two rooms, we slept in one and the two officials slept right outside our door! Now, I know what it feels like being detained by the government! We woke up this morning, having made lots of calls to the British embassy and they could basically not help. All they said was that it was best to return to Mongolia, which is what the Chinese officials advised us to do. They said we need to go back to Mongolia and then get a new visa from there for China! Chinese officers arrived at the seedy hotel, collected us around 9.30Am and drove us to a building facing the Chinese/Mongolian border. We were told "You go, Mongolia" and pointed in the direction of Mongolia. We thought - is he kidding?? It was plain desert and the sun was burning the golden sand. With the trolley and Amit's shoulder still recuperating, there was no way we could walk to Mongolia. After much shouting and arguing with one of the Chinese officials who spoke no English and just kept laughing when we asked what to do, he suddently stopped a truck and asked the local driver to take us to the Chinese/Mongolian border on a truck with a local man. We jumped in with the stranger and 5-10 minutes later we were at the Mongolian border. We thought they would be understanding, but no at first they did not want to let us. They said we left Mongolia yesterday so now the visa is also invalid. So we said, were they going to keep tranferring us from China to Mongolia and then back to China and then back to Mongolia? The Mongolian officials wanted us to buy a new visa, so we said that we wanted to speak to the British embassy first. At first they refused us to make the call, but then they let us, and while Amit was on the phone, they called me in and said "ok, no problem, you just go back to Ulaanbaatar, we cancelled your entry of yesterday". So they let us go! We needed to drive to the train station on the Mongolian side and a local woman said she would drive us and of course she took more money from us than she should have.We reached Zamyn Ud - the hottest town of Mongolia (it is mostly desert), where we had to wait for 6 hours for our train to Ulaanbaatar at 5.55PM. The train trip took 16 hours! We shared a cabin with 2 local Mongolians who spoke no English. I slept in an upper berth and Amit slept in the berth beneath. A surreal experience. We shared some of the 2 local men's watermelon - that was kind of them to offer us some. They watched us when we played card and they just grabbed our Lonely Planet book and looked through it, then the picked our playing cards and just being curious. Definitely felt a cultural difference there - how they just took without asking. At 3Am, I suddenly opened my eyes -had been sleeping for a while, as I saw the big guy falling off his upper berth onto the floor, I screamed, he screamed and then I head Amit screaming, - I looked down horrified thinking that the big guy had fallen on Amit, while Amit screamed while raising both his arms in the air (luckily his left arm was in the sling, so stayed in tack - phew!), as he thought that I was falling off the bed and he raised his arms to catch me! Bless him. In the darkness, I grabbed his right hand from my berth and said "are you ok?", he said "I thought you fell out of the bed". The big guy was laying on the floor in a lot of pain, he had smashed into the steel table, which he had broken and onto the half water melon on the floor which had splattered everywhere. He just got back up into his berth, put his head on the same side as the steel table that had a iron bar sticking right into the air, and one of his arms dangling out of the train window. Amit and I did not sleep after that, we put our blankets together and covered the iron bar, to avoid the big guy falling and killing himself on the iron bar!! We were so cold without our blankets, but better to be safe than sorry.
Those two days that just passed have been full of surreal experiences and we are so knackered!

12 DAYS CAMPING IN CENTRAL AND NORTHERN MONGOLIA

2008-07-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

16 July 2008, Ulaan Bator
UB-TSES

We have a 21 year old guide called Inga, this is her first trip ever with tourist. She has just finished Uni and she started of saying in the jeep as we drove off "from now on we are all family". that was lovely of her and we thought "how nice". But those were only words. Her immaturity and fakeness soon became evident - it bugged us but we decided to ignore ignore and just enjoy the nature and it turned out to be a super countryside journey. Our driver is Bator, speaks very little English, has loads of experience and is cool. We often play cards with him and we listen to his Mongolian Jakhlan songs - I must buy that CD!

we are out in nowhere and just stopped by a big town called Moron on the way to Khovsgol Lake (North Mongolia near the Russian border - and this is the only place we will find internet. We have been touring since 5th July in a Russian Jeep with a crazy driver called Bator. The roads are very rough and bumpy and my back is aching. Amit's shoulder is feeling funny but he is looking after it. Our mobiles are not working here and there is litereally nothing out here - just nature.We are touring 12 days, and we have been gone now 6 days and have 7 nights left and 8 days before we are back in Ulaanbator. We are staying in tents and gers/yurt (Mongolian white tent) and have no toilets/showers! We just have to pick a spot in the nature - for both No.1 and No.2! We had a wash in a very cold lake - but you cannot use shampoo or shower gel in the water as it gets contaminated. So you can imagine that we are quite dirty and smelly now! (We are going to have a wash in a public bat house here in Moron). We are really living a basic primitive life and you can get used to it, though it is not comfortable, but it makes us really appreciate our life in DK/UK. We are absolutely loving it here. It is really the most beautiful country I have been to. It really is. It is so spacious, remote, clean and massive. So many green mountains for miles and miles and just yaks/cows/horses/rabbits/rodents/cranes/other birds and hardly any people.

Leaking tent, hot spring
Great White Lake
Horse riding in Khovsgol
Nadaam Festival in Khovsgol
To be completed
_________________________________________________________________
We have had 15 amazing days in Mongolia. I would love to come back to see West Mongolia and the Gobi. A lot of adventure can be had in the spacious, massive and wonderful country-side. Definitely the most interesting country I have visited on this world trip.

China - here we come.....

MONGOLIA - FIRST IMPRESSIONS

2008-07-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

4 July 2008, Ulaan Bator

Mongolia is the 19th largest country in the world and only has 2.7 Million people. About 1,5 Million of the population live in Ulaanbator = UB. Most people live in gers/yurts which is a white, round tent and can have about 6 single beds inside it. They come in different sizes. It operates as a lounge, dining and sleeping room.

In UB, people mainly live in flats or small houses, but many of the houses have a ger in the court yard. Our hostel has a ger in their court yard and it is really cool.

There is 98 % literacy in Mongolia. The main religion in Buddhism. You also have Christians, a few Muslims (the Kazakhs) and a number practicing Shamanism (mainly in the North).

Mongolia is very rich on resources, but unfortunately it has not benefited the country. 70% of the food eaten in Mongolia is imported from China! The USA have been giving monetary aid to Mongolia but are now threatening to withdraw the aid, because they feel Mongolia is trading too much with China!
The main problem here (as in many other countries) is corruption. The aid that arrives, does not arrive to the people. It is swallowed by officials in the government. If the Mongolians wanted to extract their resources they would see an explosion of foreign countries coming in and reaping the benefits, because Mongolia do not have the machinery. There are already several foreign mining companies who are profiting from gold and other minerals over here, but the Mongolians see no benefit to themselves. The traditional Mongolian is a nomad and if you had this major influx of companies starting an agricultural revolution or extraction of other resources, you would also see a fall or a disappearance of the nomads. This is how they have lived for thousand years. What is right or wrong? Many people in UB leave after high school to study in India, Korea or Japan. They don't see any opportunities in Mongolia so they leave. Then you have the traditional Mongolian nomad who wants to stay a nomad.

Mongolia has been ruled by the Russians and the Chinese.
It seems that the Mongolians are more fond of the Russians and have a clear dislike to the Chinese. With Russia coming into power in 1936, the Mongolians had free access to education in Moscow and felt they had more opportunities. The Buddhist religion was practiced behind doors as the Russians destroyed various temples and monasteries and thousands of monks were killed. In 1990 Mongolia got Democratic election, and guess what, all the Communist parties were voted back in. 1990 was an important year for the Mongolians. They started practicing the Buddhist religion openly again and sent lots of young men to Tibet and China be re-educated on Buddhism. Most of the old scriptures were in Tibetan and had not been translated into Mongolian.

It is an interesting time to be in Mongolia due to the political situation.
We had a very interesting conversation with the fellow-travellers, who are staying in our hostel. There is a Scottish/English guy and his Canadian girlfriend, who are travelling for 8 months and have travelled all through the Baltic countries, through to Russia to Mongolia. They have been stuck in Mongolia for 3 weeks - not by choice, but they are trying to get visas for China and India. They said that we were extremely lucky to get our Visas hassle-free in Singapore. The Chinese have really tightened up! In their 3 weeks' stay, they have learnt a lot about the country and they have been enlightening us.

We are starting our 12 days journey tomorrow going through Central and North Mongolia and will be back in UB on 16th July. I am very excited.

ARRIVING IN ULAAN BATOR DURING THE STATE OF EMERGENCY

2008-07-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

3 July, 2008, Ulaan Bator

We have arrived today safe and sound in Ulaan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.

You might have heard that the Mongolian Government declared a State of Emergency on the 1st July. Well, it is still a State of Emergency, but it is safe. There is a curfew for all. You cannot be on the streets between 10pm-8am and alcohol is banned in all shops and restaurants. Apparently, there were huge demonstrations a few days ago and modern buildings were burnt down. It was Parliamentary elections on the 29th of June (I think) and everyone expected the Democratic party to win, but the Communist parties won the most spaces in the Government. People were shocked at the results and many claim that it was a fraudulent election, hence the demonstrations. There was a lot of violence on the main square, but everything is sort of calm now. So nothing to worry about. We did not know any of all this - since we had no access to news in China. We tried going on the BBC website, but that website is blocked in China! All we knew, was when Amit spoke to his Dad yesterday evening, and his Dad said that there had been some political problems in Mongolia.
Then when we arrived this morning, the owner of the guest house where we are staying, filled us in on all the news.

We are staying in a family-run guest house. Our hosts are Mongolians Gan and Oyuna. They picked us up from the airport and they are so friendly and talkative (especially Gan - the husband) .We are paying US$16 for a room (that only has beds and a small corner table) with breakfast. We have an outdoor shower room and an outdoor toilet (which is a normal toilet seat but goes into a hole in the ground). There is a shared kitchen where you can cook your own food if you want. Gan is very good at planning tours and is eager for us to book a tour with him, but we are still deciding on the route and we are planning to start touring Mongolia on the 5th July. We have to choose whether we want to see the North of Mongolia (which is the best time to visit weather-wise) or the South - Gobi desert. No time to see both. I always wanted to see the Gobi desert, but the North is supposed to be stunning at this time of the year. We are probably
going to head north.

We have not seen much yet, but from what we have seen, Ulaan Bator looks very poor. The buildings are old and shabby and although the roads are clean.....ish, it seems run-down.
We saw one of the burnt buildings from the demonstrations. There seems to be a lot of poverty. We have seen a few street children begging and one in particular came in to the cafe where we were eating and kept grabbing Amit and trying to take his food. Even after three "NO"s and firmly telling the child to leave us alone, he kept bothering us. It was unpleasant.

To me, the Mongolians look like the Greenlanders. Their faces are wide, they have high cheek bones and many are golden-tanned. Some are very fair and have brown hair.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

2008-07-02T04:48:00.001-07:00

2 July
GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Our guide picked us up at 6.40AM and we joined another 36 people on a 3-hours bus ride to the Jinshangling part of the Great Wall of China.It was a hot sunny day and guess what you can see the blue sky! As soon as you get out of Beijing, you can see the sky! Wohooo!We ventured out on a 4 hours trek to from the Jinshangling to Simaitai part of the Great Wall. This is the not-so-touristy walk and takes you to the original old Great Wall (the part of the Great Wall which is mostly visited by tourists is the Badaling Great Wall, which is the new rebuilt wall, which has better and safer walking path.) We wanted to walk on the old original part. It is a 10 km walk up steep steps constantly going up and down up and down. It is hard work in the heat and at times slippery. The wall is magnificent. It is set in the hills and just goes on and on and on. The views are gorgeous. As we got to the end of our trek, there were two options, either you walk another 25 minutes or you take a slide (strapped to a cable and your hands holding a rope, sliding from one end of a hill to the other side) across the river. Amit and I went on the slide together - it was fun! Felt a sense of achievement today - very much enjoyed the trek on the wall.

FIRST DAYS IN BEIJING

2008-06-30T03:00:00.001-07:00

30 June 2008
BEIJING
Tianamen Square
Forbidden City
Wang Fu Jing and Roast Duck

We arrived in Beijing yesterday morning at 4am! We were due to arrive on 28 June at 11.05PM, but our flight got diverted to Shanghai and the delay was 5 hours. We were told that it was weather conditions and that Beijing decided to close their airport. When we landed, we were told that there was no problems with the weather, but they just decided randomly to shut the airport. How considerate!At the passport control, the guy keept looking at me and at the passport and he did not believe I was the person in the photo! So he called a colleague to look at me and at the photo. I felt so stupid and I was not impressed at 4AM in the morning. The guy also asked Amit to take his glasses off so he could see his face properly. Beijing airport is huge, and supposed to be the biggest one in the world. It is very modern and clean. All set up for the Olympics.We got a taxi to our hostel. We are staying at a place called 9 Dragons House Hostel. In it set in an alleyway called a "Hutong" in the Dongcheng District. We are very central to everything, which is good. We are paying 14 pounds per night for the room which has AC, TV and bathroom. Not bad. We will stay here until the 3rd July.We were so tired that we slept till 1pm and then we had our first eating experience. It is so hard to communicate with people over here. No one speaks English, if they do, it is very very broken. We are no better - we speak no Chinese. We try to teach ourselves some words and sentences, but we are awful at pronouncing the words. We spent about 15 minutes trying to explain what we wanted to eat. The menu was in Chinese, and the waitress was trying hard to explain to us what was on the menu..in Chinese. We sat with the dictionary, trying to pronounce the words, and they made no sense to the waitress. Luckily, we also had the Lonely Planet guide. We showed some sentences to the waitress and she understood a few words. Everything we asked for , they did not have, so we ended up looking at photos on their menu and just picked two photos from there, not knowing what we were actually ordering, as a photo does not always show everything. We ended up with two alright choices. One was a spicy noodle soup and the other was what we would describe as a Chines Paratha. It is like a Giant Paratha of 3 layers stuffed with spring onions and sliced sweet corn. It was good, but really heavy.We can't stop laughing at how hard it is to speak to people here. This is the hardest country to travel for us, and it is an experience and a challenge. We have never had this problem to date and we have been around a bit.
Well, the metro system is quite easy to figure out. Took us 5 minutes to figure our how to operate the ticket machines and the metro is impressive. It is clean and informative. We took the metro into Chongwein, where we spent a few hours in the New World Shopping Mall and had our first Chinese supermarket experience. The fish section has aquariums with live turtles, prawns and fish of all kinds. You just pick the one you want to bye to cook at home. ( I felt so sorry for the turtles, they were trying to get out of the aquarium. ) We were stopped by a girl who wanted to interview us in connection with the Olympics. We gave our answers and then we got a small Chinese present as a THANK YOU. It is a wall hanging. Had food near Chongweng (was over-priced and quite disgusting) and wandered back to our hostel at 9.30PM.

Beijing has 15,2 Million inhabitants and is the most polluted city in the world. You can barely see the sky, it is just full of pollution/smog. Every day you wake up and the sky looks white/grey. You feel the heat but you can't see the sun. It is depressing to look at. They say that if you breathe one day of air in Beijing, it is like smoking 70 cigarettes. Can you believe it! So polluted. What a shame! and this is where the Olympics will take place. I am really missing fresh air. The city is clean on the roads and you don't see as many cars on the roads as we expected. Apparently, the government has limited cars on the roads up until the Olympics are over.
It seems it is common to spit into public bins.

30 June
We only made it to Tiananmen Square (the largest public square in the world), as we spent an hour looking for the recommended Roast Duck restaurant. We had walked the complete wrong direction but still ended up at one of its branches. But it was now 2.45PM and they had just shut until 4.30PM! Great! So we went for a long walk down the Tianamen Square and passed the Mao Mausoleum/Mao Memorial Hall, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the Monument to the People's Heroes and the China National Museum. The square is absolutely massive and has lots of red flags on the middle of it.

1 July

I think we have quickly gotten used to Beijing. We don't take any taxis, just the metro/underground and lots of walking. We went to the Forbidden City today which is so grand and impressive.It was closed to the public for 500 years - hence it is called the Forbidden City. It was the home of two dynasties of emperors - the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. This is where the very Last Emperor of China lived. When you enter, you go through three massive gates before you come to the main entrance to the Forbidden City. It has lots of beautiful buildings in red with roof tops in the colour of gold/yellow with ceilings in green/blue/gold/red. All the roof tops have corners with very small statues of 9 creatures. The first is an emperor riding on some animal followed by eight animal-looking creature - like lions and dragons. When you are in the Forbidden City you just can't comprehend how massive it is. It just goes on and on. At the very end of the Forbidden City, there are pretty gardens with statues and small temple-looking houses. You could spend a day here - we spent 4 hours exploring. There is Hall of Clocks which stores numerous grand, unique clocks/time pieces given as presents to the Emperors. They were made in England, Switzerland, Japan and America. We were in the hall when there were having a clock display of their ring tones. I would not say that it is worth paying 10 Yuan to see this.
After enjoying the Forbidden City, we had lunch at the famous "Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant" off Wangfujing Dajie - which would be the equivalent of Leicester Square. The restaurant looked so posh and the service brilliant. The interior all in red, gold and yellow. The Peking Roast Duck was tasty. Over here the eat it with the skin. First the cut a bit of the skin off and serve it to you, for you to dip it in sugar and eat it. Then they present the meat with the skin on and you roll it into a pancake. There is a certain style in rolling the pancake. And lastly, they present half of the head of the duck with its brain! Amit ate it!
There are lots of shops on Wagfujing Dajie and a whole section just dedicated to the upcoming Olympics. There is the famous little alley the Wanngfujing Snack Street where you get all sorts of meat, octopus, beetles on skewers, roast corn on the cob, coconut juice and stuff that I have no idea what is and would not touch.
Tomorrow, we are off to see the Great Wall of China. Looking forward to it.

LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA

2008-06-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

LANGKAWI
21 June - 28 June 2008

Beach, sun, pool, rain forest, good food, massages, monkeys, lizard monitors and rain. That was our Langkawi trip.

We wanted to take a "holiday" from our backpacking mode, so we flew to Langkawi.
Langkawi is an island of the Kedah region, which is part of Malaysia. The island is mainly rain forest and was un-developed up until 1988. Now, it is a honeymoon destination and we did feel like we were on honeymoon, when we splashed out (with a great discount) on 3 days in an amazing resort - The Andaman, which is set in the rain forest on the beach. It has its own private beach on the Datai bay beach, its own pool and three great restaurants and wild life such as monkeys and lizard monitors. The service is superb and the location just perfect. We felt very very spoilt. We did have sunny spells but we also had the rain which restricted our beach access for 2 days. We went for night walks on the beach and spent a lot of time in the water . Just what we needed.
There are accomodation options of all budgets on Langkawi. You just need to shop around. We tried all sorts of accomodation.
We rented a car (black Nissan Pulsar) for 70 Ringgits (11.5 pounds per day) for a few days and drove around the entire island. Saw Kuah town and its night markets (only on Saturdays), the Langkawi malls, Hindu temple, the Harbour, Oriental Village (from where you can go on cable cars), Pentai Chenang, Pentai Tengang, Tanjung Rhu beach and the Datai Bay. It is so green and full of wild life. Lots of monkeys and sadly, we saw a dead one on the road.

Langkawi, was our chill-out time and it was lovely and relaxing.

LAST MINUTE CHANGES OF DESTINATIONS

2008-06-30T02:58:00.000-07:00

21 June 2008
From Nepal to Singapore to Malaysia

We decided to cut Nepal short, as it was not fair to see what is supposed to be a beautiful country, when the monsoon season is on. The first few days had sun and heat and we enjoyed days in Thamel in Kathmandu. We visited Durbar Square and walked a 1,5 hours route recommended by the Lonely Planet, passing stupas (Buddhist temples/prayer areas) , Hindu temples and markets. Then the rain started, which upset all the plans of going on a 10 day trek to the Everest Base Camp. Even our booked mountain flight over the Himalayas got cancelled while we were waiting in the airport. Some travel agencies recommended that we do the Anapurna trek or the Langtang trek. We almost booked the Langtang trek which takes you to the border of Nepal and Tibet. Luckily, we had done enough research that it was not worth spending the money. Possibilities of land slides and muddy, dangerous treks in rain and lots of leeches was not our ideal trek. We knew tourists were still going, so we headed to Pokhara for 2 days to see if it was worth doing part of the Anapurna trek or the Jomsom trek. The weather was great in Pokhara but a bit too hot at times and we quickly decided extreme heat, humidity and monsoon was ready to turn into a disaster if we went on the trek. We were never meant to be in Nepal, apart from a stop on the way to Tibet, so we had never researched the weather here. In Pokhara, we enjoyed the lake views (Phewa Tal) , the bars, restaurants and managed to see the World Peace Pagoda (a buddhist stupa) overlooking the town and lake and the Devi Falls. We are keen to do the trek in Nepal and will have to do this in the future - maybe next year.
Since Tibet was out and Nepal not an ideal time to visit, we thought let's get some sun and beach. The cheapest flight from Singapore (we had to fly back to Singapore from Nepal) was to Langkawi.
On the way to Langkawi, we spent 2 nights (19th June - 21 June) in Singapore, stayed at Clarke Quay and enjoyed great food and night life.

NEPAL

2008-06-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

12 June, Kathmandu
NEPAL
We have just arrived in Kathmandu. Took us 4 hours 40 min by flight from Singapore. There was hardly any queue in immigration and the airport is tiny. We already got ripped off when changing our UK pounds. The guy at the counter basically gave us a different rate to what was on the official receipt. No doubt he kept the rest of the money. On top of that we got charged 200 Rs commission. Well, this was the charge you get at the airport - so we exchanged as little as possible. We jumped into a pre-paid cab that looked like it had been bombed. It had no locking, no window handle, no glove room, no seat belts and it felt like the wheels were about to fall off. Now, it feels like we are back in the "real" Asia. Singapore was so smooth, now we are back in backpacking style.
Over here our money goes a long way, 1 pound = 131.12 Nepalese Rupees. Things are very cheap here - cheaper than India. We paid 13 Rupees for a 1 litre bottle of water = 10 pence.
The cab ride through the streets of Kathmandu felt like driving in India. Small bazaars, "thelas", kurta shops, rickshaws and loud traffic. Here the first language is Nepalese and then Hindi. Most people speak Hindi and they watch Bollywood movies, so we speak Hindi to the locals. Sometimes, some of them will swap over to English. I guess we can't pretend to be locals, though a few of them have said that I look Nepali. That is good - saves me from getting any hassle then. The dusty roads, the scents of spices and colourful street corners all make me feel less of a stranger, as it is like being in another town in India.
Nepal was never really on our travel plan, it was merely an entry to Tibet. Since, we cannot visit Tibet on this trip - apparently, the borders are open officially, but China is not granting any access to Tibet until after the Olympics. So we have to change our plans too. We are spending a few hours today deciding whether we just tour Nepal, or stay a few days in Nepal and then head to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia or Bhutan. Bhutan will be the least-visited by tourists. Let's see what we decide tonight.
We are staying at Kathmandu Guest House, a budget hotel. Our room is facing a pretty garden with a small fountain. It is in the middle of the Thamel centre with lots of shops, bakeries and tour agencies.
We realised that a Lonely Planet guide would have been very useful for Nepal - so we went on a hunt, and we found a book shop that sold us a second-hand Nepal Lonely Planet guide for 1000 Rupees and the man will buy back the book from us for 500 Rupees, when we have finished with it. Not a bad bargain!
We are currently in an internet cafe, trying to download photos and Hindi songs are being played in the background. I am hearing a couple of the oldies from the 80s (those who have been watching Bollywood movies - will know these), such as the songs "Yaad Arrahi Hain, teri yaad arrahi hain" and "dabli wahle, dabli wahle, dabli baja" and "Payaliya, hoohohooo". These songs are bringing me back to my childhood.
The weather is nice and pleasant. Although, it is the monsoon season, it has not rained yet and the locals are expecting it in July. The sun is shinning and it is dry. Not so humid like Singapore.
We are taking it easy today and if possible, quite keen to watch a Bollywood movie in the local cinema.

I like it here..

15 June
We booked a mountain flight to fly over the Himalaya Range, but the flight got cancelled due to bad weather and nil visibility. Maybe a sign that we should not do a trek at this time of the year. We went hunting for an ideal trek, we so wanted to do the Everest Base Camp trek, but the monsoon is on and will make visibility bad. Then we were recommended to do the Langtang Trek which is a 10 day trek taking you to the border of Nepal and Tibet. We almost booked it until last minute when it rained all day, we thought why go and see something that we know will not be as beautiful as it really is when it is the right weather. So we are keeping this trek in mind for the future. Watch this space!

We spent a night at Pema's place, a local Nepali who has a house in Shanti Goreto. She is the mother of one of Geeta's (my younger sister) friends. She kindly took us in and looked after us. She and her sister were so kind and welcoming. It was nice to see what "life" is like in a local home.

We thought the weather might be better outside Kathamandu, so we went on a 7 hours bus trip to Pokhara. It was very hot and dry here. It is set by a lake - the Phewa Tal, which is surrounded by green hills. Pokhara is a cute place with lots of cafes and shops. We went to the World Peace Pagoda, which is a buddhist stupa and is set on a hill that faces the lake and Pokhara town. It is nice and peaceful up there.
After two days in Pokhara, we headed back to Kathmandu. It took us 10 hours to get back! We were stuck up in the mountains in a 25 km long queue. A big lorry was hanging off the mountain side - looked like a very bad accident. The 25 km took us 3 hours to drive and you can imagine how frustrated everyone was getting.

18 June
We spent a last night at Pema's before completely spontaneously booking a flight to Langkawi. The rain in Kathmandu made us long for the beach and some sun.

SINGAPORE (8-12 June)

2008-06-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE
Taking the shuttle bus to our hotel was a good idea to get a bit of sightseeing. I have flown in and out of Singapore a couple of times but never been outside the airport. You immediately notice the modern, wide, clean roads with pretty greenery and the high-rise buildings. Everywhere you pass, there is a mall or a hotel. Just how I imagined it.

We spent our first two nights in Chinatown.
My cousin Ate Edna (who lives in Norway) flew out to Singapore to meet us and 2 hours after landing in Singapore, we were out dining in China Town, followed by drinks in Highlander Bar and clubbing at I-Rumours and The Pump Room at Clarke Quay till 3AM with disco and live bands on a hot, humid summer evening. The Pump Room was fun, with tourists requesting if they could sing on stage. It turned out that this amazing Belgium singer who sang "Besame Mucho" and her three friends who accompanied her with a sensous dancing, were professionals who performed at the Singapore Arts Festival. We had a perfect night out and it was great to see my cousin again!

The next morning we were knackered and spent most of the day window-shopping. The big sale is on - so I am having a great time!

(10 June) Well, we had to get it eventually, so we got up early to get our China visas. Luckily, we arrived at 9am and by 10.20am, we had submitted our applications for a next-day pickup. We moved our stuff to our new accomodation at HangOut @ Mt. Emily in Little India. Here it is like being in India and you can get the best Indian foods. The dosas are yummmmmmm.
We spent the evening on the Night Safari. Amit came here 9 years ago and wanted me to experience it too. Basically, following walking trails in the dark and passing wild animals on the way, followed by a guided 45 minutes tram trip in the dark. A cool and fun way of seeing animals. Really enjoyed this.

(11 June) We had planned to visit Sentosa Island but the rain caught us, so we opted to spend most of our time indoors in malls and restaurants.
Tomorrow morning, we are flying to Nepal. It will be interesting to see, where we will head to after Nepal, since we can no longer visit my dream destination Tibet. Quite disappointed about this, but something to look forward to in the future, coz this trip I will have to make.

Less than two months left of our world journey - where is the time going??

AUSTRALIA - IMPRESSIONS

2008-05-29T04:33:00.001-07:00

If someone asked me what I thought Australia would look like, I always imagined Australia being red and orange desert sand with huge rock formations (probably because we learnt about the Ayers Rock at Uluru in our geography lessons at school) and just vast open land with no people for miles and miles. You say "Australia" - and I immediately think of the Outback in Australia. Secondly, I imagined a colourful sea bed with dangerous marine life and dangerous snakes and spiders. I had heard a lot of this massive island from family and friends and always had it on my list to visit one day.
So I made it! We have rented a car and are on route all the way from Sydney up to Cairns. Basically, we will be covering 3100 km in 12 days. So far we have stopped in Tea Gardens near Myall Lakes, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Airlie Beach and now on Magnetic Island, 20 min from Townsville. Tomorrow we drive to our last destination by car to Cairns, where we will stay a few days (before we fly to Darwin for our Kakadu National Park bush camp experience.) It is a lot of driving and we could have done with another 3-5 days. We have seen a lot already!
It is a proper road trip - we would have gone for a camper van but it was pricy, so we got a car - a silver grey Nissan Pulsar (with lots of scratches - I think it has been around a lot!). We try to stay only at backpackers hostels but sometimes they are fully booked and sometimes it is a lot cheaper staying in a motel or hotel. It does not make sense. Surely, a backpackers place should be cheaper. Well, we do spend a bit of time going from place to place to check out the rooms and get a good deal. Sometimes, it is nice to just have it all booked online - but everything takes time. We have still not stayed in a cabin in a caravan park - but maybe we will get the opportunity before we leave Australia. We tend to make our own breakfast, lunch or dinner. It all depends on the facilities that our hostels or hotels have. If we get a hostel with a kitchen - well, then we will be in there cooking. (It is amazing how much you can save by cooking yourself when you are on a budget). After returning our car in Cairns on the 31 May, we will spend a few days in Darwin (yeah it is too far to drive with our limited number of days, so we will fly).

Now that I am here - if you ask me what is it like, I would say it is a bit of everything. City life and the most remote life and then the in-betweens. Does that make sense? At first when I landed in Sydney, it was like being in Northern Europe (culturally - an English person would feel very at home - even the prices are the same!). It felt like being a London, just cleaner, and the water ways/ harbour prettier. (And the Indian food here tastes a lot more home made than in England. It is good.) I noticed the non-existence of old, historic buildings. In some areas, I could say "right now I am walking at Liverpool Street, and right now I am in Moorgate and in the Bank area." Then we started our road trip, and you realise that motor accidents are big over here. And it seems that most of these are caused my sleepy drivers. On various spots on the highways you see huge signs warning against tiredness. Some signs say "REST or R.I.P", "a tired driver is a dead driver", "stop revive survive", "survive this drive" etc etc. Each year about 6000 people get killed in road accidents over here, 1 person killed by a shark and 1 person being killed by a bee sting. So I am not so scared anymore of dangerous snakes and spiders - though you often get told that there are so many things that can kill you in Australia. Two songs that have been played to us on a bus tour say it all. One started "Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed" and "We are all gonna die some day my lord". That is Australian humour for you - an yes we were laughing all the way on the bumpy roads on Fraser Island. ; )

Our road trip covered going into national parks with lakes, bush, rain forest, beaches, cliffs, and spotting wild life. Australia has a wild life you cannot find anywhere else in the world - the land of the kangaroos, wombats (looks like a giant guinea pig - bigger then a cat, is fat and has a face like a guinea pig), wallabys (looks like a kangaroo and jumps like one but are smaller - I did not know of these before), the super soft koala - a marsupiel that is nocturnal and very lazy), and the land with the most dangerous spiders and snakes in the world and the colourful, rich marine life. Australia has a lot to offer. It is even a place I would consider moving to, if it was not so far away from my family and the rest of the world (I actually think New Zealand is the perfect place - again if it was not so far from everything.) If Australia was on the cards, then Sydney would be the right place for a career, but to live, I would much prefer Queensland. It is so beautiful and scenic there. My favourite spots are really on the route from Brisbane to Cairns.
Like any other country, Australia do have its problems. Many don't know this, but the Aboriginals - the original inhabitants of the Australian land, were up until 1967 considered part of "Flora and Fauna", they were not considered humans. This is hugely difficult for me to understand. Up until 1976, a child who was half caucasian and half Aboriginal, was taken away from his/her Aboriginal parent to work in the cities. Our guide on the Kakadu bush camp (who is half Aboriginal and half caucasian, and grew up in Arnhem Land in an Aboriginal community) and an Australian girl who works in "reconciliation" between the Aboriginals and the Australians explained that there were integration problems and a huge lack of understanding and communication between both sides. It is very sad. I only know, what I have been told - I know very little about these issues.

With all my impressions, I have only been to a fraction of Australia (only the East Coast) and I am told that Western Australia and South Australia is completely different. So those places for another visit.
For you who have not been here - a visit is recommended. If you have limited time, I would concentrate on Queensland. Next time I come to Australia (wonder when that would be!), I would definitely like to see Perth, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and spend more time on some of the islands. If you plan to go to the Outback, driving from the West to the East - it will take you 4 weeks solid and you will be out in nowhere. We were tempted but its better being a larger group than 2.

AUSTRALIA (15 May - 7 June)

2008-05-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sydney

(15 May) We took a 3,5 hours flight from Christchurch to Sydney and headed straight to Nina's (a friend and former colleague of mine) who has now settled into Sydney life. What a great location - smack bang in the middle in a gorgeous flat in Darling Harbour. We had a lovely dinner in China Town and a drink at the harbour.
(16 May) We spent most of the day researching car rental for our East Coast trip. It is not cheap and feels very expensive when you have just paid under ten pounds a day for a car in NZ.
Well, let's see what we will end up with.
Cooked Filipino dinner at Nina's.

(17 May) After Amit's physio appointment in the Olympic Village, we visited Heidi, Keith and Meg (my friends from my Peru trip in 2003) and finally met Heidi and Keith's gorgeous kids Annika and Mitchell. Five years since we last met. We had a huge, yummy roast lunch while catching up. Was really lovely seeing my Australian friends again.

We had arranged to go on an evening ferry cruise with Nina but the weather was not the best, so we decided to go for a Thai meal instead in Kings Cross and went on to Springfields (a new bar) and then to Slip Bar - the bar where the crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his wife Mary met at the Olympics. It has a Danish flag right outside it. Funny. Of course I had to take a photo of the bar (which by the way, is just a normal looking bar, nothing special).
Rolled in at 2am.

(18 May 08) Met up with Karan (my cousin) and his wife Komal (they just got married in January) at Circle Quay. We took the ferry to Taronga Zoo and saw the Koala, kangaroos, wallaby, wombats etc. but no platypus. Where were they? A zoo that faces the sea and the city of Sydney with the Opera House and Harbour bridge in the background. We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so went to Star City. It has a casino, a theatre, bars and restaurants. Had dinner at Maya restaurant in Surrey Hills. Good fun today.
Tomorrow, we start our 14-19 days road trip up the East Coast.

Sydney to Myall Lakes
(19 May 08, Surfers Paradise) Yeah, you see there is this website called http://www.standbycars.com/ where you can suppossedly pick up a very cheap cars in Australia. We saw quotes of $1 a day plus a relocation fee. Basically, it is car hire companies who want their cars driven to a particular location. We needed one that could take us from Sydney to Cairns. On the site, it said that 6 cars were available. We waited for them to call us for 3 days after we showed an interest. Today, was our deadline and since they did not get back to us, we had to hire a standard rate car. The cheapest we could find was $30 per day. What other choices did we have? We could take the Greyhound or Oz experience bus which meant less flexibility and more time consuming. We took the car. (And guess what 2 days later we receive a call from Standby that they have a car available from Sydney to Cairns - a bit too late!)

It took us an hour just to get the paper work sorted and in the meantime cars were being returned and all three of them had been in an accident. Ok, a bit worrying. So we took out the extra insurance. Apparently, running into a kangaroo is quite "normal" and after dark you are not insured. So if you drive after 6pm and you are in an accident, well your insurance does not cover you. So, we had to look out for kangaroos and avoid driving after 6pm.

With the good intention of leaving early, we still only reached Myall National Park at dark. We drove through the park for ages and we could still not find the Myall Shores Ecopoint Resort. We could to a blind end and a lake and it said "closed after 6PM". Our accomodation was just across the lake. We called them up and were told we had to go all around the park through a different village and it would take us 1 hour and 15 min. It was late so we opted to stay in the nearby village called Tea Gardens just next to Myall River.

Coffs Harbour
(20 May) Early departure and drove straight to Coffs Harbour. Our plan of going straight to Byron bay were a bit unrealistic. It was off-peak season yet we had difficulty in finding accomodation. Ended up at the cheapest option at Hotel Formule F - cheaper than the backpacker hostels and they allowed us to use their kitchen so we could cook our own dinner.

Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise
(21 May) Drove to Byron Bay. A pretty beach town with long long stretches of beaches on different ends of the town. Went to the light house at Cape Byron with stunning views of the stretches of white sand beaches, rocks and bird life. Had burning sun and blue sky above us. Really liked it here.
Then headed to Surfers Paradise passed Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach.
Surfers Paradise - reminds me a bit of Miami just much cleaner. Yes, it is a party place - and there were lots of young people (18+) and a lot of them from the UK - so it felt a bit like being back in England. But the weather at night, cool but pleasant. Again long stretch a soft white sand. Must be really nice when it is hot enough to go into the water. That is why we are heading to Cairns as quick as we can, so we can get into the water.
Had dinner at the recommended Tandoori Palace (they serve Kangaroo curries here) and it was so tasty. (We did not try the Kangaroo.) Went to a couple of bars.

Surfers Paradise to Brisbane
(22 May) Took us about 1 hour to get to Brisbane. Checked into the popular Bunk Hostel. Great facilities. Has laundry, kitchen, spa pool, swimming pool, bar, night club, internet, tourist info. Very convenient (and you also pay for it! - not a cheap hostel). Went to Brisbane city centre, shopping and cooked our dinner at the hostel. Went dancing till 2am.

Brisbane - Koala Sanctuary - Hervey Bay
(23 May) The Chinese visa section - say no more. Lets get it in Katmandu.

After our city walk, we stopped at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary before driving to Hervey Bay. This Sanctuary is the first and largest in Australia and 130 koalas. They are so cute and cuddly and extremely lazy. They sleep between 16-20 hours a day! I held one and just wanted to hold on to it. So cuddly! Then we visited the kangaroos jumping around on the grass. One came straight at us and put his mouth to smell Amit's legs and hands, I think it was hoping we were bringing food. Unfortunately, we disappointed him and he jumped off. Amazing to see about 25 kangaroos jumping together. Also saw the wallaby, the fresh water crocodiles, the taipan snakes (the deadliest), emus, dingos and a bird eating a mouse. Yucky di yuck.
Had a long drive to Hervey Bay and got there by dark (we just don't seem to be able to make it in day time).

Fraser Island
(24 May - 26 May)

Definitely my favourite trip in Australia so far. We spent 3 days on Fraser Island (which has 100 fresh water lakes) with a small group. We went on 4Wheel drives on the seventy-five mile beach, which is also a highway, where we saw a sea snake and a dingo, swam in Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, where we attempted sand boarding and saw cat-fish, walked in desert-looking sand dunes, saw a carpet python digesting its food, walked in the tropical forest, where I had the pleasure of having a leech suck on my foot! Yuck! Trekked to the Indian head, went to the Champagne rock pools and saw sunrises over the island. Lovely!

(27 May) Drove from Hervey Bay to Mackay and Proserpine and had no luck with accomodation. Everything was fully booked and it was getting late and dark. We drove and drove and experienced a jumping kangaroo right in front of the car, Amit who was driving, shouted, "kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo, oh shit, kangaroo". We managed to pass it when we thought it was jumping right at us. We ended up getting to Airlie Beach earlier than planned as there were no hostels on the way. Stayed in the Magnum hostel and just chilled by the Airlie Beach lagoon the next day.

Airlie Beach - Magnetic Island
(29 May)
Due to time constraints we decided against doing the Whitsunday sailing and drove to Townsville where we caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. Stayed in Bungalow Bay (4 minutes to Horseshoe Bay beach) - A-framed huts in the middle of jungle. Was great at night seeing possums trying to find food and hearing various screaming animals. The next morning was lovely and peaceful with the singing birds. Went on a trek to Radical Bay. A beautiful beach here. We were told that there might be stingers (jelly fish) but may be ok closer to the beach. We went for a swim before catching the ferry back to Townsville and for our 5 hours drive to Cairns.

Cairns
(31 May) Returned car and walked back to our hostel via the Esplanade. Lovely beach path with palm trees, BBQ areas and playgrounds along the very low water level. Just relaxed and hung out in Cairns city. Nice to have one of these days without any plans.

Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef
(1 June) 7.30am start to the Green Island, just 45 minutes on the boat from Cairns.
Passed Fitzroy Island (leased and being developed by Japanese companies with malls and hotels) and Yarrabah (owned and inhabited by the Aboriginals) .
Snorkelled at Pinnacle Reef. Saw giant clams (amazing!), huge sea cucumbers (feels weird to touch - their mouth and bottom is the same!), black-tipped shark, schools of massive rainbow-coloured fish, red bass, camouflage fish and multi-coloured live corals and reefs. Did a round-trip of the Green Island and spotting reefs at knee-length water.
Great day for snorkelling.

Skydiving in Cairns
(2 June) The day of overcoming my fear! I wanted to do it for years and this was my chance.

The skydive was AMAZING. I screamed all the way until the parachute opened. It felt like I was falling forever. What a strange feeling. Well, when I got up in the plane my instructor said "you know you booked a 9000 feet jump with a 30 seconds freefall, well now you are jumping from 11000 feet - as we need time for the bus to get to the landing point". I was like "oh no". Anyway, I was the first one to jump and when the plane door opened, I looked out at the clouds, looked down over Cairns and felt all the wind blowing my hair all over the place, and I said to myself "oh shit, I am scared, oh noopoo". I was so nervous! The instructor told me to stick my legs out of the plane, I did not feel ready, but before I knew it my legs were dangling out of the flight door and I heard the instructor shout "put the goggles on". Suddenly, we were jumping out of the plane. I screamed "ohhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrghhh" and it felt like I was just falling and falling. Then I shot up in the air a few metres when the parachute opened. My ears were hurting from the wind. Suddenly, we were flying peacefully over Cairns city and surrounding sugar cane fields. The instructor made a few turns in the air. The view was amazing. I loved it! Soon we were landing on the ground and I could see the bus driving towards us and Amit was there - he saw me in the sky. I had such fun and it is by far the scariest thing I have ever done. Now I think I should not have been that nervous. I really liked it. When we landed I was told that we actually jumped from 12000 feet with a 50 seconds freefall. Cool!

A great way to say goodbye to Cairns! Darwin - here we come.

6 June '08, Darwin
Darwin and Kakadu National Park
(2-5 June)

What an experience! It helped that we had a crazy guide, completely nuts who was knowledgable and adventurous. 3 days camping in Kakadu National park with camp fire food and sleeping under the stars. We walked a lot (day and night), drove a lot, swam in lakes and rock pools, saw a lot, made our own spheres, tried to catch prawns in the dark, saw Aboriginal rock art, went on a jumping crocodile cruise on Adelaide river, slept very little and had a fantastic time. Very eventful 3 days. To give you some idea of our guide, well, he was telling us a dream time story around the camp-fire, and half-way through he passed out and snored till the next morning (a bit too much to drink maybe). (See my photos on FaceBook.)

(5 June) Got to Darwin before sunset and went for dinner at the night markets on Mindil beach, before clubbing with the bush camp group at the Wisdom and VIP (or something like that) till 3am.

(6 June) Chill-out day

7 June 08, Sydney
Had a not so fun journey from Darwin to Sydney. Delays due to fog. We left Darwin city at midnight and arrived in Sydney at 9.30am!
Spent our last day with Nina before heading to Singapore tomorrow.
Our journey in Australia has been fantastic! Favourite experiences: Kakadu Bush camp, Skydiving and Fraser Island.

NEW ZEALAND (6-15 May)

2008-05-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

15 May 08, Queenstown, New Zealand

Auckland-Christchurch-Kaikoura-Greymouth-Franz Joseph-Queenstown-Glenorchy-Milford Sound-Queenstown-Lake Tekapo

New Zealand - the country where there are more sheep than people. The country of the kiwi bird, the hobbits and adventure sports. NZ is made up of 3 islands although most people only hear about 2 - the North Island and the South Island. Over here the New Zealanders joke that they have 4 islands - the 4th being Australia.

We arrived on 6 May! A 13 hours flight from LA and yet we lost the 5th May. How surreal crossing the international date line.
Obviously jetlagged, we landed at 6.30am in Auckland on the North Island and checked in to our very basic hostel centrally located.

Alex, our Scottish friend whom we met in Ecuador, met us at our hostel and took us for a guided tour of Auckland. The tour started with a puncture of the car, which we quickly fixed and then we off to see the city, Mount Eden, Mission Bay, the sunset from Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, went to a funky basement bar called the Wine Cellar and had a Korean meal, before Amit and I had a drink at the Skytower. We saw a lot in one day - all thanks to Alex.

We flew to Christchurch the next day, where we rented our little mustard coloured car and headed straight to Kaikoura. It is poxy but it drives fine, convenient and is only costing us 9 UK pounds a day (petrol is expensive though). We debated between a campervan and a car and we decided we preferred to be warm at night - and it is now autumn in NZ - so the campervan was out of the question.

It took us 3 hours to Kaikoura - a small town on the beach side. It was dark when we arrived (gets dark here around 6PM) so we could not see much of the surrounding sceneries, but the next morning we were amazed to see snowcapped moutains surrounding the sea side. Absolutely beautiful sight. We joined a catamaran boat tour to see whales - and we saw two sperm whales - massive creatures! We only saw the upper body of the whales- and when they turned their tails to the sky when they went food hunting - so imagine how gigantic they are in size under the water. Closer to the shores we saw albatrosses, cape petrels (birds) and 70-80 dusky dolphins jumping around. So happy and playful - amazing to watch!It was a warm, sunny day with blue sky, so we enjoyed our packed lunch on the pebbled beach with its music like waves.

After our sea experience, we drove to Greymouth (8 May) - a long 5, 5 hours drive. Not much to do here - just a stopover for us. (Though, had some of the best Indian food in Priya restaurant.)

(9 May) After breakfast, drove to Franz Joseph - a very small town famous for its glacier.

Franz Joseph glacier originally called "The Tears of the Avalanche Maiden" by the Maories, is one of the 3153 glaciers in NZ. Fox glacier is the other famous one and the rest you barely hear of. Franz and Fox are famous because they are considered "warm" glaciers. Many people think a glacier is a frozen river, but it is actually compressed ice. The Franz Joseph glacier moves about 6 meters in a day. You can climb parts of the glacier and that is what we did. First a 1 hour walk on steep rocks and climbing of 4 ladders, then you get to the ice and we put our "crampons" on to our boots to keep us stabil when climbing the ice stairs and passing cravesses. The sun was shining, the sky blue and the reflection of the sun making the ice look so blue and pretty. Going down the cut ice stairs seemed harder than going up the stairs. A cool experience and a taster for when we venture to Patagonia one day.

After our glacier walk we drove to the adventure town - Queenstown.

Again, we arrived when it was dark and when we woke up the next morning we saw the beautiful autumn colours in the mountains of yellow, orange, red and brown, surrounding the lake. Queenstown is full of adrenaline-filled activities and I took part in two of them - river rafting and jetboating on Shotover River. Imagine being a passenger on a jetboat going up to 80km an hour on a river with sharp cliffs and rocks on the way and you go at such speed while the jetboat suddenly turns 360 degrees. You will get wet and cold but you will love it. The speed and thrill - just excellent.
After getting changed into a wet suit, I was put into a team of 6 and we were soon out on our raft on the Shotover River (the second richest gold river in the world - gold digging/mining is however banned for 50 years in NZ to leave the nature alone - our rafting guide found half an ounce of gold last year on this river - so you never know, this could be your lucky place). It was a grade 4 raft journey and we went over several rapids some of which are called "Toilet", "Flush", "Oh shit", "Mother" and "Cascade". The Cascade rapids come after you raft through a 180m long dark tunnel. It was FUN! I love rafting!
By the time I got back to our motel, my arm muscles were aching like anything.

A traveller had recommended a drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy. It took one hour one way and yes it is worth it. We stopped at the lake in Glenorchy and had a picnic lunch on a wooden bench just by the lakeside. We had snowcapped mountains in front of us and yellow brown mountains behind us. What a spot! SO beautiful.
And and ..I saw a hobbit or two. : )

Milford Sound (12 May) arrived at 8pm, and although it looks like a big place on the road map, it is not! We arrived thinking we would find a supermarket and several hostels. We got there and we could not find the town only to find out that we were in the town which consisted of one pub/bar and one lodge and a petrol station with no attendant. We were luckily to find room in the Milford Sound Lodge which was full of tour groups. Well, we could choose between a dorm bed or a chalet. We chose the lake facing chalet. Yes, the best accommodation we have stayed at in NZ. The next morning we went on a 2 hour boat cruise in the Fjordlands going into the Tasman Sea. Very pretty, though we would have seen a lot more had the weather been better. We saw several waterfalls. On the way back to Queenstown, we stopped at Mirror Lake and Te Anau downs and several other beauty spots with names I don't remember.
We perhaps made the mistake by staying at XBase - the popular backpacker hostel. The room was fine, but the hostel. There were 350 people staying that night and there was a masquerade party on. It felt like my 1st year back at University. A guy with a big backpack was attracting much attention, and we saw why, he had a person sitting inside his backpack. It was funny, yes. But everything was like being back in a Halls of Residence, really loud young people. (Makes me sound so old). We did not mind that, what I minded was that we had to get up early and we could hear people screaming and being drunk in the hallway until 3am.
Oh well, all part of the experience I guess.

(14 May) A drive from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo, passing gorgeous yellow- brown mountains and several wineries. Our NZ trip has already come to an end and tomorrow we fly to Sydney.

(15 May) It was stunning this morning. As I pulled the curtain to the side, the sunrise appeared. It was reaching over the lake and reflecting towards our room. Not bad.
I was preparing for our last few hours in NZ. We really liked it here in NZ- there is serenity and calm.

Overall impression:
NZ is beautiful, scenic, lots of adventure sports, good outdoor culture, clean, spacious, easy going, relaxing and great for family life. Very tourist friendly and easy to travel (you need a car of course). Yes, we could live here - but it is too far from the rest of the world and our families.

LOS ANGELES, USA

2008-05-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

4 May 08, Los Angeles

We arrived in LA on 1 May and have spent 3 nights with my uncle, aunt and cousins Rohan and Shivani. We have had a great time catching up, playing cards, eating lots of yummy Indian food, seeing Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, the walk of fame, the Chinese theatre, the malls etc. And oh yes the only celeb we saw was - Dominic Monaghan in the airport - the Lost and Lord of the Rings guy.
In a few hours we are flying to New Zealand.

PASSING BY ENGLAND AND DENMARK..

2008-04-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

29 April, 08, Bedfordshire

England and Denmark

We landed back in a sunny England on 24 April. Straight back into the M1 traffic jams!
It was lovely seeing and catching up with Amit's Dad again and experiencing spring arriving.
The next morning I was up at 5.45AM for a flight to Denmark to spend 2 days with my family in Copenhagen, catching up and playing with my niece. It was wonderful.

Back in England on the 27 April , preparing for our 2nd leg adventures and passing by the office to say HI to my LTSB colleagues.

On 1 May we are heading to Los Angeles. Rohan and Shivani - see you soon!

PERU

2008-04-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

22 April 2008, Arequipa
Hasta Luego South America...

It is coming to the end of our trip in South America. We are leaving Arequipa today for Lima and flying back to the UK tomorrow evening. On the 24 April we will be back in England for 4-6 days.

We have a lot more to see in South America, and no doubt we will be back one day.

Last but not least, our family and friends have brought us wonderful news whilst we were in South America:

Meena and Iain are expecting their second child. (I am going to be an aunt again - wohoo : ))

Edith and Jens got engaged.

Dave and Christina got engaged.

Namrata and Mukul got engaged.

Ati and Michelle got engaged.

Big Congratulations to all of you!

21 April 2008, Arequipa
Arequipa

Arequipa is just like it was 5 years ago when I was here with my sister Meena. The Plaza de Armas still as white and cute with its palm trees and fountain. The Santa Catalina monastery still as colourful and pretty and the Andean museum still full of mysteries. The only disappointment was that Juanita - the ice maiden, a 500 year old well-preserved mummy that was found 150 m below the Ampato volcano in 1995 by John Reinhard was missing. She was at the laboratories and instead they had a mummy named Sarita in the museum. Nonetheless, the findings at the volcano are impressive, mysterious and open up a lot of questions of our past civilisations. It is believed that Juanita, Sarita and the other 16 mummies that have been found in both Peru (14 mummies found) and Argentina (4 mummies) were sacrifices made to the Gods of the Inkas.

Arequipa is the gateway to Chivay, the Colca Canyon - the second deepest canyon in the world, and the Cotahuisi canyon - the deepest canyon in the world. I visited Chivay and the Colca Canyon in 2003, and this time we opted to spend our few days in Arequipa just chilling and sightseeing.

19 April 2008, Arequipa
Puno to Arequipa

We arrived at our hostal at 0.45AM! Our bus was supposed to leave Puno at 6PM and get us to Arequipa at 11PM. Several agencies had advised that the bus company Julsa was great - direct bus to Arequipa - no problem. No it wasn´t. It was actually our worst bus journey in South America. Yes, it was cheap (15 soles = $6 for a 5 hour journey) and we know why now. It only left Puno at 6.45PM and it made several stops along the way picking and dropping off people. My seat was constantly falling backwards and the window next to me was rattling, while Amit had a passenger literally leaning on his knees with her seat. And the smell in the bus! No toilets onboard which we were told there was. I just could not wait to get to Arequipa. At 0.45AM, it was obviously pitch black and there was no hostal pick-up due to our very delayed arrival. The queue was long for a taxi, but the next taxi driver shouted at a customer not to get into his car and he ran towards us, asking if we wanted a cab. Another cab driver got annoyed and said "why are you taking them, they are at the back of the queue". Our taxi driver replied "dollares, dollares". Hmmm. Well, he did not get dollars from us, he got 5 soles for the journey to our hostal. Alas, showers and a nice bed!

18 April 2008, Puno
Uros Islands
Amantani Island
Taquille Island

(17 April) Got picked up at 7.30AM to meet our group going to the Lake Titicaca. The Lake Titicaca is shared between Bolivia and Peru. Peru owns 60 % of it.
We took a boat to the Uros Islands. The Uros Islands are man-made islands made of reed and inhabited by natives. The islands are so soft to walk on. Just like the islands, the natives here are bright in the colourful clothes. Never seen islands like this.
After a bit of a guided tour, we went on the boat for another 2 hours to the Amantani islands, where we were going to stay with local natives. We were greeted by our "Mama" called Norma. We walked for about 50 minutes uphill in the heat to get to Norma's house. It consisted of 3 rooms surrounding a tiny court yard, a separate kitchen and a toilet which was basically tin doors and a pot. We stayed at Norma's for 1 night - slept and ate there. It was an interesting experience. We really looked forward to this and also realised that the natives on the Amantani were quite used to seeing tourists and having them stay around. We tried to learn as much as we could about their lives on the island. They spoke Spanish and so did we brokenly. Sometimes, it felt that we were just there for business, while other group members has shared great chats with their host families. We tried to help in the kitchen and to be part, but we were made to eat at separate times and not with the family. Don't get this wrong, we had a wonderful time and experience, we probably expected too much. We wanted to learn new things, about another way of living and we did live very basic for 1 night. 1 night is nothing and maybe we expected too much. The island itself is stunning. Amazing views over the Lake Titicaca and ruins on the top of the island, yellow hay fields and purple flower fields. An idyllic setting.
We also got to experience the native dancing. We were dressed in local native wear and danced the folk dance in the community hall with the locals. That was fun.

The next morning, we said goodbye to our hosts and went back on the boat to Taquille Island for a walk and lunch. This island is a lot more developed. Also amazing views here and ruins.
It is recommended to do the Isla Sol and Isla Luna islands from the Bolivian side. They are supposed to be completely different to the Peruvian islands of Uros, Taquille and Amantani.

16 April 08, Puno

Puno - gateway to Lake Titicaca

We arrived in Puno today from Cusco. Unfortunately, you have to make your journey to Puno, if you want to visit the Lake Titicaca - the highest navigatable lake in the world. I say unfortunately, because there is not much to do in Puno.

14 - 16 April 08, Cusco

Last days in Cusco

Cusco is such a place that you could spend days just relaxing and watching the days go by. We spent our last days travelling on the tram around Cusco and taking us to the Christ statue and Sacsaywuman, shopping for a painting which will fill our future walls and eating at lovely restaurants such as the Fallen Angel - a favourite of mine. (The second time for me in 5 years.)

13 April 2008, Aguas Caliente
We wanted to catch the sun-rise, so we boarded the first bus to Machu Picchu at 5.30am. The queue was very long and 4 buses took the eager tourists up the hilly roads to Machu Picchu. We were lucky, we got to the site and sat there waiting for the sun to arise and hit each mountain peak. The day was so clear that we could see snow-capped mountains in the background. (I did not see this back in 2003). It was nice to take photos with no tourists.
We wanted to climb the Wayna Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed to climb each day. We went up as the 40th and 41st person. It is a tricky mountain to trek, it is very steep and muddy and not many places to hold a rope. I was constantly worried about Amit climbing with one arm in a sling. But he did amazingly well. I am very proud of him. Last time I climbed Wayna Picchu in 2003, I suffered vertigo for the first time in my life. I was conscious that this might be the case again, but I wanted to overcome this fear. I had to make it to the top without fear. I did it. The view is beautiful but just as beautiful a bit further down before you climb up some very narrow and steep stairs in a small cave. You literally have to crawl your way to. The top was full of people and crazy locals jumping from one rock to another when it is so steep and dangerous.
When we got down the Wayna Picchu it was 10.15am and 290 people were up climbing and the queue very long! We chose the right time. We walked around the ruins for hours and walked down the offbeat track on the sides of the ruins going towards the hilly roads to Aguas Caliente. I will never seize to admire this site. It is magical, but you must come as early as possible as the crowds of people sort of spoils the magic.

We had food in Aguas Caliente before going back to Cusco on our long train journey.

12 April 2008, Aguas Caliente
AGUAS CALIENTE

There are several ways of getting to Machu Picchu:
1) the classic Inka trail from Km 82 (4 days)
2) the Salkantay trail (5 days)
3) the Lares trek (2 days)
4) other tailored treks
5) by bus/train from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, change here for another bus to Machu Picchu
6) by train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente, change here for bus to Machu Picchu
We chose option 6. There is only one train a day on the Backpackers train (the cheapest train for a tourist - US$48 per person one way). There is the much cheaper one of 9 soles per person, which only locals are allowed to travel on. Then you have the much pricier ones Vistadome (US$98 p.p one way) or Hiram Bingham trains (US$400 + p.p one way!).

The inka tour groups were full up until August and with Amit's dislocation, we could not take any risks. We took the backpacker train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente. We met an interesting man on the train. A retired billionaire who had boarded the wrong train (he had booked the luxury train). Jim, was his name, he was Greek from Boston, in his early 40s, previously owned his own companies, a yacht and two jets and one day gave it all up. He was a corporate machine who wanted everything bigger and better than anyone else. 8 years ago he walked into his office and didn't like it, so he sold his company and has been travelling for 8 years and has no intention of ever working again. So those people do exist out there.

It was low season in Aguas Caliente, so it was possible to bargain in every eatery. We had a room facing the Urubamba river and the water was so loud. Really cool!

11 April 2008, Cusco

SACRED VALLEY
Pisac Ruins
Ollantaytambo
Chinchero

Today, we visited the Sacred Valley, through which the Urubamba river runs through. A very fertile valley which always has water and plenty of food for the locals.
From the Sacred Valley we drove to the Pisac ruins with massive terrasses, the Ollantaytambo ruins - an unfinished fortess and ceremonial centre and Chinchero - inka ruins in a small village.
If you come to Peru, you must see the Ollantaytambo. Make sure you are fit to climb the inka stairs.

10 April 2008, Cusco
Cusco
Quirokancha
Sacsaywuman
Qéngo
Pukapukara
Tambochay

It is great being back. I love Cusco! A beautiful town with colonial buildings and surrounded by mountains. It has hilly, cobblestoned alleys and near many inka sites. 5 years ago it was not as touristy as it is now. There are a lot more shops now, it is more expensive (prices have doubled since my last visit!) and you are quite often followed by touts. Yes, it can be annoying, nonetheless I still adore this place.
I had difficulty adjusting to the altitude and I had to stop several times to catch my breath. Amit seemed to be coping better.

We stayed at the El Triunfe in San Blas, lovely and personal staff but overpriced. Oh well. Days later we moved to Amaru 1 Hostal with better airy rooms and wonderful breakfast, but the staff confused and seriously need service training.

Today, we went on a day tour covering various inka sites such as Quirokancha - inka temples within a cathedral, Sacsaywuman - 1 km uphill from Cusco - an inka fortress and ceremonial centre, shaped as the head of a puma, Qéngo - a labyrinth type inka ceremonial place, Pukapukara - an inka fortress, Tambochay - an inka water fountain, it is said that if you drink the water from here, you will stay eternally young. From Sacsaywuman you have beautiful views all over Cusco. (It is said that Cusco was built in the shape of a puma. The inkas believed in 3 world, the upper world represented by the Condor, the middle world - represented by the puma and the under world represented by the snake. )

Amit also had an appointment with a local traumatologist (as they call it here in Peru) for his shoulder.

8 April 2008, Lima
With Amit´s dislocation, we abandoned the idea of bussing it to Peru, so we caught a flight to Lima yesterday. We had booked a hotel over the internet, and when we got there I realised that I had stayed at this very hotel in 2003 with my sister. How funny. We stayed in Lima Centro, (most tourists stay in the Miraflores area by the coast) and enjoyed hanging out around the Plaza de Armas.
We caught a flight in the evening to Cusco.

ECUADOR

2008-03-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

4 - 7 April 2008, Guayaquil

GUAYAQUIL

Guayaquil is the biggest city in Ecuador and yes you feel it. The Lonely Planet guide describes it as a place you either hate or love. I disagree. Yes, it does not have the beauty of the North of Ecuador, it does not have the native culture as seen in Quito. It is the financial centre of Ecuador, things are more expensive and people seem more affluent. Guayaquil has colonial buildings and the water front. It is famous for the night life and is indeed a happening party place. It is what you make of it. We opted to relax and get organised for our jump to Peru soon.
We have come to the end of our tour of Ecuador. We are left with a keeness to come back to see more places such as Baños, Vilcabamba, Tena, Mindoro, ride the train from Riobamba to the Devil´s Nose and to see the Galapagos again.
Ecuador is also a great base for learning Spanish, it is cheap and the clearest Spanish spoken in South America. We loved it here.

Our adventure continues on to Peru...

31 March - 4 April 2008, Galapagos

THE GALAGAPAGOS ISLANDS

Andrea (Stanley) was right, this place does BLOW YOUR MIND.

We had a 1,5 hours flight from Guayaquil to San Cristobal island in the Galapagos.
The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador but is 1000 km away from main land Ecuador. This is the place where Charles Darwin developed his theory of THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
The Galapagos consist of several islands and only five of these are inhabited with a total population of 18, 650 . When the Galapagos were formed, they were barren volcanic islands, devoid of all life. Because the islands were never connected to the mainland, all the species present must have somehow crossed the 1000 km of open ocean. The Galapagos wildlife is dominated by birds (especially sea birds), reptiles including the only marine iguanas in the world, sea mammals, tropical fish and marine invertebrates. The Galapagos are unique because of the fearlessness the wild life possess. There are no large predators to fear and therefore you can get very up, close and personal to the wild life. You can swim with sea lions, marine iguanas and turtles. You can stand next to the blue footed booby and the lizards and iguanas and they won´t move. They don´t fear you. It is like a different world. Quite a surreal experience.
Our 5 days cruise on the Galapagos allowed us to visit Isla San Cristobal (558 sq km), Isla Española (61 sq km), Isla Santa Fe (24 sq km), Floreana island (also known as Santa Maria, 173 sq km), Isla Santa Cruz (986 sq km) and Isla Tortuga. Every island was different in terms of its flora, fauna and inhabitants of wild life. We went for treks on the islands, snorkelled in amazing clear water where we saw sharks, giant sting rays, sea turtles, marine iguanas, giant fish in bright green/yellow/purple colours, star fish in yellow, red, blue, black and bright green colours, little penguins and a lot of funny looking urchins. Of course there were the mini jelly fish (non-poisonous of course) that kept stinging all over. I got stung right above my lips. Auwww!
I cannot describe how beautiful and surreal it is at the Galapagos. It is like the real World is left behind. I had sea lions swimming right at me just looking at me and a baby sea lion sniffing mine and Amit´s legs. Some of the sea lions would imitate the way you swim or move in the water. Hilarious.
Floreana island, which is today uninhabited (used to be inhabited) has the famous post office bay. There used to be a barrel where whalers left mail. Any captain of a boat that was heading to where the mail was addressed would deliver it by hand. Today, tourist who visit the island post their cards (no stamps as no postal services are involved) there, hoping that someone from the destination they are sending their mail to, will arrive to pick it up and hand deliver it. We checked the box and there is a lot of mail, some dated 2007. I picked up a card addressed to a family in Copenhagen. I will take it with me and hand deliver it to the address. Let´s see if the card I posted to my parents will ever get to them by hand delivery.

On our last day, we visited the Charles Darwin centre on Isla Santa Cruz, a turtle breeding centre. It is inhabited by 90 year old Lonesome George, a giant turtle, and the only one of its kind in the world. They have tried for years to get him to mate with other turtles from around the world, but is has never succeeded. There are fears that when Lonesome George goes his specie will die with him.

We saw many sun sets, beautiful star filled skies, stunning sea life, breathtaking sceneries and were lucky to be on a great boat that served excellent food.

A lot can be said about the Galapagos and to get the true impressions, you must go there and see for yourself.

30 March, 08, Guayaquil
MONTAÑITA

You just never know how your luck changes. There we were watching crabs coming out of sand holes, pelicans flying close to the sea waves and wild dogs running on the beach. It was all so peaceful.

We were going to watch the sun set at 6.15PM (29 March) when Amit dislocated his left shoulder. (The second dislocation of his left shoulder in 11 years). He was in the hut and was sleeping on his tummy. He decided to jump up rather than stand up and twisted his body and lost balance, while the left arm was resting and suddenly I heard him saying "Meera, I have dislocated my shoulder". I panicked, while he was holding his left arm and clearly in a lot of pain. I called for help and luckily our hostal owners - Eduardo and Veronica were in the vicinity. Eduardo got the car out and Amit into the car with some difficulty. He felt like fainting. Eduardo took us to the nearest hospital - 10 minutes on a bumpy road into Manglaralto. The hospital was a room with a man in a doctor`s coat, looking 16! I was shocked and said to Amit "that boy is not touching you". Amit was put on a stretcher and in our basic Spanish and with Eduardo acting as a translater, we had to explain what had happened. We asked for an x-ray before doing anything, but it was a small village hospital with no x-ray facilities or gas. We gathered that the shoulder had to be put in without an x-ray, as the next big hospital was 1 hour away on bumpy roads. Another doctor appeared, a bit older, so we relaxed. They doctors asked us to purchase injections - Eduardo kindly helped. We were trying to find out what it the injections were, but no one knew the English translation, and Amit and I were debating whether he should let them inject this lime green liquid. We just did not know. I guess in some situations you just have to trust that they know what they are doing, and Amit was getting to the point where he said "just tell them to put it back in, I have no other choice". One of the doctors asked me to step aside and 6 people surrounded Amit. They injected him with the lime green tranquilizer and started cutting his t-shirt. Amit looked up and said in loud clear Spanish "Este camisa me gusto mucho" = I like this t-shirt a lot. It was hilarious, everyone laughed. I could only see his left hand and someone pulling it. Suddenly, there was cheering and clapping. The shoulder was back in! Eduardo came up to me and said "it is all done". I looked at Amit and he seemed to be in less pain. He was given another injection for pain relief and then Eduardo helped us get a taxi to go to the next big hospital in Libertad. It was an hour`s drive away. We reached Hospital Alcivar, a private hospital, a lot bigger and cleaner. Amit was taken for x-rays which showed the shoulder was perfectly in the socket and again no one spoke English so we could not get any after-care advice.

The next day, on Amit´s birthday, we left Montañita for Guayaquil. It was too risky to take a local bus, so we got the same taxi to take us for the 3 hour`s journey. Eric, our driver, took us straight to another Hospital Alcivar in Guayaquil. It took 3 hours for the doctors to look at the shoulder and to make up the medical reports. Luckily, there was an English-speaking nurse who explained how to keep the arm. The doctor gave us the all-clear to go on our booked Galapagos trip today, as long as Amit keeps his left arm strapped in the sling for 2 weeks.

Sometimes, we don`t appreciate what we have until we start missing it. We often talk about how bad the health system is in our countries, but when you are met with an incident like ours, you really appreciate how easy it is in Europe, if something goes wrong.

29 March 2008, Montañita

MONTAÑITA

It has been nice being up in the mountains and breathing fresh air, but it was time to head to the coast, to the beaches and some summer weather.
We said goodbye to our wonderful hostal family and our new made friends, big hugs and email exhanges. We took a flight from Quito to Guayaquil (the financial city in Ecuador and the largest) and from here a 3 hours bus journey to Montañita. (Price US$5.50 per person by bus or US$120 by taxi!). The drive was all along the coast so it was just beach sites for about 2 hours.

Montañita does not have a bus station. You are dropped off in the middle of a high way and from there you can walk into the village which is very small. At first we only noticed the locals while walking to our hut at the end of the beach. Later in the day when we went for our swim, the beach was packed with foreign surfers. Montañita is a surfer`s hangout and very much a hippi place. You see all sorts of people. Hippis travelling around making money by playing music, or spitting fire/fire joggling, making jewellery from beans and other natural products. At night time, the village comes alive with it´s 3 strips of bars and restaurants. It gets very lively and the bars/restaurants sell great food - especially the sea food is good. The beach has nice sand and ends at the Point = La Punta. At the wet sand on the beach, you can see tiny light yellow/green worms crawling up. I have never seen these before and there are so many of them!

While walking to the strip we came across a sign-board saying "Tibetan massage". We followed the signs and knocked on the door. The door opened and we were greeted by a middle-aged man who probably looks older than he is. The strong smell of insense hit our noses immediately. The man was German, had a tatoo of the Hindu Aum on his forehead, about 6 rings on his fingers, beaded necklaces around his neck, looked wrinkly and like an old hippy. He grabbed our hands tightly and welcomed us and wished us peace. We asked about massages and he explained the various things he does such as not just massaging but working on our souls. Apparently he has spent 3 years in Tibet and learnt all sorts of remedies. He told us that we had to allow him at least 15 minutes between massages for him to meditate. We are intrigued and I might try him out later today. I am interested to know how he works with my soul.

Must add that our dinner yesterday was delicious at Casa Blanca.

26 March 2008, Quito

OTAVALO

I had long known about Otavalo. A small village set high at 2550 m and famous for its Saturday tmarket where the whole village comes alive including the cows and pigs for sale. We went on a Wednesday to avoid the crowds.
To get there from Quito, we took a 3 hour bus ride through beautiful sceneries, which cost US$2 per person. Now that is value for money.
Otavalo is a cute place with small narrow roads full of panaderias, cafes and restaurants leading to the main square Poncho Plaza which is attractive to the tourists, such as me, for handicrafts, ponchos, blankets, bags, jewellery, hammocks etc. With your barganing skills you can pick up good quality products at very reasonable prices. We only came for the day, but we could quite easily have spent two nights here. There is the nearby Cotacachi which has the leather market and the Laguna de Cuicocha - a lagune set in a crater by volcanic eruption. It is supposed to be stunning and has various treks around the crater. You will not be bored in Otavalo and had we had more time we would have stayed longer.

We reached back to our hostal at 6Pm just in time for our Spanish class. At 7Pm we were making plans to have a reunion with the Jungle group from our Amazon trip. At 7.30Pm we were in Alex and Judy`s balcony at the hostal having drinks and nuts with Alex, Judy, David, Helen, Luis (our Amazon guide) and his girlfriend Niela. Judy sure is an amazing host! It was great to meet so many people from the jungle again. We headed to a new local bar which has interesting colourful rooms. One had table football with magazine cuttings of pretty girls all over the wall, another room had records stuck all over its walls and handwritings all over. We had food and then continued to a fusion disco playing western music and salsa. After an hour`s of booging we decided to go to a traditional salsa place. We headed to Salsa Station. Outside the bar next door, a woman was doing yoga and stood on her hands (upside down) and looked disorientated - this was at midnight! She probably had something very strong.
The Salsa Station is tiny and has a small dance floor, 3 tables, a bar with high chairs and instruments that we could play on to add to the music. The dance floor was dominated by two couples dancing amazingly. It was soooo good! Turned out the men were salsa instructors. The speed in their steps and the moves were just so impressive. We made our way to the dance floor and probably looked completely inexperienced next to the other dancers. But it was fun! At 3am we had diffilculty dragging Alex and Helen out of the bar - was quite a heavy night of drinking for some of the jungle group members. We all reached home safely.

25 March 2008, Quito

PAPALLACTA

We opted to take it easy today so we visted the Papallacta hot springs. Just 60 km from Quito and a 2 hour´drive. We went to the Therma de Papallacta - an area set in the mountains, 4200 m above sea level with 10 pools with different temperatures. The water comes from the volcanos Cayambe and Antisana close-by. The water was very hot in some of the pools and extremely cold in others. A great place to relax and enjoy the nature around you and the sounds of the waters flowing in.

Recommendation if you have time and like to be pampered: Spend an overnight stay at the Termas Papallacta Spa & Resort hotel. You can get all-inklusive deals (massages, hydro pool, spa etc) at reasonable rates. Have a look at www.termaspapallacta.com or call +5193 6 232 0622.

24 March 2008, Quito

ECUADOR IN A NUTSHELL

Ecuador has it all! It has the biggest biodiversity per area in the world. It has the mountains, volcanoes, hotsprings, the Amazon, the beaches, adventure sports, the Galapagos Islands, the culture and wonderful people.
I wonder why we have not come here before now. It is easy travelling around Ecuador and with your broken Spanish you can come a long way. Being such a small country you can see a lot in 3 weeks. Buses are cheap and if you look around well you can get reasonable internal flight tickets.

Facts:
The population of Ecuador is 13.4 Million. The main language is Spanish, however, most of the indenginous people speak Quichua. There are 18 different languages among the native communities. It has a democratic government and currently run by President Rafael Correa Delgado. The currency is US $. The dollarisation happened in early 2000 when the Ecuadorian currency (Sucre) suffered badly. Many Ecuadorians are unhappy with this as they found that life became more expensive for them.
The main exports for Ecuador is 1) oil, 2) roses and 3) bananas.

21 March - 24 March, Quito

AMAZONAS

Going from a cold climate high up at 4800 m at the stunning Cotopaxi to a warm and pleasant rain forest is a bit of a surprise to the body. We have just spent 4 amazing days in the Amazon jungle. The lodge surroundings were beautifully set next to water running into the River Napo, about 1 hour`s boat journey from Coca. Our hut was fronted by a garden of pink, red and orange flowers occupied by stunning butterflies. Our veranda faced a huge lemon tree and the lodge dining area/hang out area had wooden carved furniture and hammocks. The lodge kept a Tapir as a pet (when I saw it at first, I thought it was an ant eater though she looks a bit like a pig - HAHAHAHA, ignorant maybe ) who was called Maria. She was amazing - she followed us everywhere - into the swamp and into the river. Then there was the pet parrot that could not fly named Rico Suave by our group.
The lodge kept two spider monkeys for rehabilitation (one of them viscious!). They had been rescued from being sold on the black market. A woolly-faced baby monkey called Dexter which we called Little Buddha (because his tummy was so round) was living outside the cage where the spider monkeys were kept. He was so cute and Amit befriended him. You could hold Dexter´s hands and he was particularly interested in arm bands and necklaces.
We had 3 daily activities at the lodge which included trekking in the jungle in deep svamp (not easy work), canoed in lagunes day and night, night walks, pirana fishing, a blow pipe session (it is a long blow pipe in which an arrow is inserted, and you blow from one end and the arrow hits your target - used by the natives to hunt/kill animals for their food), playing the lodge pets and a native cooking class. We prepared steamed fish in spices, fried yuca and banana and "Mayorge" = a light yellow worm with a black head. Yuck. They were alive moving around and one of the girls in our group had to help chopping slightly on the heads to kill them and then take their veins out. They did not have blood. Their inside was a yellow texture that looked like melted cheese. Oh my gosh! I could not eat that. Amit gladly took a bite and ate the whole thing. He said it was nice an crunchy.
We played football, Ecuador versus the World. I played on the Ecuadorian team as they were short and I looked the most Ecuadorian. Ten minutes into the game I got injured, sprained my toe. Typical. It is still healing. We also played baseball , I could only bat and a team player had to run for me.
We saw tarantulas, an anaconda, monkeys, tapirs, wild pigs, lots of beautiful and colourful birds , giant insects and rodents. We also visted a native community where Amit and I got married again. We had a native wedding ceremony. Haha ha it was fun. We were dressed in grass skirts and our faces painted. We had to do a dance with our chosen best man and maid of honour = Scottish Alex and Australian Judy. The Amazon experience was fantastic. But what made it even more memorable were the people. Our group of Alex and Judy, 17 year old David from Canada , 16 year old Brittany and her Dad from Canada, 62 year old Helen from the US, Swiss Hugo, Japanese Mayuko and our guides Luis and Ricardo made it super. All from very different backgrounds and yet we all got on so well. We never sat still. We were always inventing new things to do and making juice from the giant lemons of the lodge trees became a daily activity.
I felt sad leaving the Amazon.

20 March 2008, Quito

COTOPAXI

What an amazing day! We left our hostal at 7.30am for a 3 hours drive to the Cotopaxi Volcano. To get there we had to drive on the Avenue of Volcanos where you can see about 10 volcanos on a clear day. The drive was beautiful on rugged muddy roads with volcanoes hidden in clouds and trees showing through. It had rained and some of the road was really bumpy. As we got to the museum at the entrance of the Parque National Cotopaxi, the temperature was feeling much much colder. We climbed the Cotopaxi which was already covered in a lot of snow. The start of the climb was in soft brown black sand, which later became rock and then just snow. The wind blew hard and the last few steps to the refuge at 4800m were happy steps of knowing that hot chocolate was waiting for us. My heart was pumping hard and the altitude was probably not that good for me. Our guide and owner of the Hostal had brought sandwiches, fruits and chocolate bars. And the hot chocolate was warming.We returned to Quito all a bit red. We thought we had been sun burnt but we were told it was wind burn.

19 March 2008, Quito

Though we had a huge warm room at the Military complex, we were glad to return to our hostal. We missed the homely feel. We spent a few hours finding a good deal for our Amazon trip and finalising our itinerary for the next 2 weeks in Ecuador. The excitement is rising!
We were about to test the Ecuadorian public transport to the Old Town, but as rain started pouring we opted to hang out at a funky eatery in the New Town and complete our homework for our second Spanish lesson.
Our second Spanish lesson was full of laughter and regular verbs and was just as enjoyable as yesterday.
We dined at Zocalo restaurant as it was recommended, but perhaps we chose the wrong dishes as we weren´t impressed. We continued on to Azucar bar at the Mariscal Fochs. Here is a lovely square full of funky, lively bars, restaurants and outdoor cafes. The night life was heaving and surrounded by police security with guns. Just shows what how safe it is here!

18 March 2008, Quito

Bright and early, we started our day with a Spanish lesson with our Ecuadorian tutor Vilma, followed by moving to another hotel for 1 night as our hostel was fully booked.
We were determined to book a Galapagos trip to compensate for the original trip we lost in February, and we got a super deal! - A 5 days cruise on a luxury boat at almost half price.
As it was the 1 year anniversary of the opening of our family run hostal and the birthday of one of the sons, we were invited to a party at the Hostal. It was great! A marquee had been set up with chairs, drinks and snacks. Pizza was delivered and some of us danced to the salsa music playing loud. All the backpackers of the hostal were present as well as local guests and family of the hostal owners. A brilliant evening. We met many interesting people with great travel stories.

17 March 2008, Quito

Although suffering from jetlag, we tagged along on the free complimentary Old Town city tour organised by our hostel. We were driven in a mini-van and taken to various churches and monuments. The sun was shining and the sky was blue and everything looked beautiful.Later in the day, we took a taxi with Alex - a Scottish traveller to the Teleferiqo/cable car that took us to a view top of 4100 meters above sea level. We had gorgeous views over Quito. We had not yet acclimatised to the altitude so a bit of difficulty in breathing at the top. But what a view!We took a mini-bus back to our hostal (US$1for tourist and US$0.25 for locals) which was an easy ap ride.In the evening, we enjoyed an Empanada evening at our hostal. The owners had cooked fresh empanadas (pastry dough filled with e.g. cheese or minced meat and peas, a bit similar to the English pasties or the Indian samosas) and brewed coffee and tea for all the guests. A great way of meeting other travellers.

16 March 2008, Quito

BACK ON THE ROAD

So we started our trip again. A flight from London to Paris to Sao Paolo. Overnight´s stay in a Sao Paolo airport hotel and early rise next morning for our flight to Quito, Ecuador via Bogota, Columbia which included a 4,5 hours wait in Bogota. Phew -what a journey.

We were greeted at the airport by Diego, the son of the owner of the hostal that we had booked. The Amazon Inn hostel is a family-run business. Carlos, his wife Pilar and their 3 sons Carlos, Diego and Daniel all help at the hostal and travel agency. The have a cute dog called Orso.The hostal is located in the Mariscal Sucre and just opposit the Spanish embassy (every day you see queues of at least 50 people on the road waiting to make visa applications) the new town and close to restaurants, bars and shops. Perfect for our purposes. The hostal has free internet, a hearty breakfast, free use of the laundry room, hot water shower, tv in each room and a travel agency. The room is very basic, but big and clean. We are very happy here. We have met some great people. The hosts are really friendly and helpful. You feel at home here and it is no doubt the best hostal I have ever stayed at.

ENGLAND

2008-03-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

14 March 2008

It has been 5 weeks since we got back to England from Brazil. We have decided to continue our journey and will be flying out to Sao Paulo later today.

11 March 2008

In less than one week, I lost two very special persons in my life, my mother-in-law and my grandmother (Nanay). It is a very very sad time for all of us.

11 February 2008
Bedfordshire

We have returned to England and will postpone our journey for the time-being.

BRAZIL AND FOZ DE IGUAZU, ARGENTINA

2008-02-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

10 February 2008
Sao Paolo

It is our last day in Brazil and we are due to fly to Ecuador tomorrow. We have just received bad news that my mother-in-law has taken very ill. We have decided to fly back to England. Henry is currently helping us get flight tickets.

9 Feb 2008

Today was the 59th wedding anniversary of Henry’s grandparents. We indulged in the best Brazilian food we had tried and the desserts absolutely mouthwatering at the celebrations. I got the recipe of the Walnut cake. Yumm. We spent 2 days enjoying the company, the steam sauna and the pool. Ribero Preto is famous for sugar cane and the beer Choppe. It is a pretty place and 3-4 hours drive from Sao Paolo.

8 Feb 2008

Henry picked us up at 6.30am - and had to go to work for 9. Poor Henry.
We had a fantastic lunch at Shismo, a Japanese sushi place - if you don´t know - Sao Paolo is famous for great Japanese food. We passed by Henry´s parents in the suburbs for dinner before driving to Riberao Preto.

5 February 2008
Foz de Iguazu, Argentina

Greetings from the Iguazu Falls on the Argentina-side!
Having lost days due to the closure of travel agencies because of the Carnival (everything is shut – and the Rio locals that we’ve met proudly say “we don’t work at Carnival”!), the only “leitos” bus from Rio to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina being full and the fact that we were so knackered after returning to our bed at 5AM from the Carnival parade, we decided last minute to catch a flight to Iguasu on the Brazil side via Curitiba – the German speaking ecological town in Brazil.We slept most of the way to Iguazu but managed to capture views of Curitiba. We had heard from Carolina – the German backpacker that we met in Ilha Grande, that Curitiba is one of the greenest cities in Brazil, very clean and the most ecological. Unfortunately, we did not have time to see for ourselves.
On arrival in Iguasu, Brazil we took a local bus heading to Centro (town centre). Although the tourist information had told us to take the bus all the way into town, we got off halfway as we heard 3 other backpackers say “this is the stop to get to the Argentina side”. We hopped off, crossed the road and now took a bus to the opposite direction marked “Puerto Iguazu”. It was a 5 minute bus ride to the border. We had to get off for our passport checks. The bus driver knew that we would be gone for about 5 minutes. While we were heading to the immigration office, the bus drove off. How nice! We were stranded at the border for 35 minutes with a Polish couple – Lucas and Ana who were traveling around South America for 3 months. So the second bus arrived and we had to pay another bus fare. Thanks!
After spending nearly 2 weeks in Brasil, covering Rio de Janeiro (seeing the Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Giant Jesus Statue, the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and other sights, experiencing the night life in Lapa andthe amazing Rio Carnival – What a spectacular experience!) and Ilha Grande (the Island - lovely beaches, many trekking opportunites - we did a 3 hour trek), we are now in the Iguassu Falls on the Argentinian side. The Iguassu falls is in a hugenational park (55,000 acers) which is on the borders of Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay. As we heard it is alot cheaper on the Argentinian side, we flew from Rio to Iguassu in Brasil and from here took a local bus tothe Argentinian side, we went through the border control and had to do all the immigration stuff with passports etc. Here in Argentina, things are so cheap compared to Brasil. It is almost half price. We thought Brasil was quite expensive, and it was more expensive on the Carnival days. The hotels and restaurants know they can charge whatever they want because the Carnival is such a Big event. Apparently0.5 million people come from abroad to attend the Carnival.Here in Argentina, we are staying in a hostel with a basic room with bunk beds, a smelly toilet and big lockers to keep out things. The hostel has a small swimming pool which is nice, a garden area with hammocks, a fire place, a small kitchen, an internet room and open spaces to sit. It seems there are a lotof backpackers here. The breakfast is slices of bread and butter, tea and coffee. Very simple.We arrived on the 5th Feb. The town Puerto Iguazu is small with spacious road, it is green and very peaceful and quite. Amit and I think this place reminds us of India. Big green gardens etc. The traffic is civilised (not like in Rio!) and the people are really pleasant and helpful and most of them speak some English. (In Rio a lot of people did not speak any English - even in the travel industry- quite surprising). The food is less salty and less sweet than the Brasilian food we had. Here in Argentina it is a lot of steaks! Big ones! Yesterday, we finally ventured out to the Iguassu Falls. We took a local bus at 7.45am to the Fallswhich took ca. 40 minutes. As we got there the park had already been open for about half an hour and loads of tourist were flogging in. We had booked at tour togo on a truck through 8 km of subtropical rain forest. Luckily we were the first batch, so it was not crowded. We drove through the forest which was nice, but our guide was so bad. She spoke so fast into a microphone and she keeping moving her mouth away,so we only heard every 3rd word. Then she forgot that we were an English -speaking group and it was all in Spanish. Oh well. The truck took us to a base in the jungle, from where we took steps down (200 m walk) to the river where a motor boat was waiting for us. We went on a very fast ride in the river and over rapids which was like going on a roller coaster - such good fun. As we approached the falls, we were told to put away our cameras and keep them safe in these water proof bags that they gave us. In a minute, we were heading straight into a waterfall, it was absolutely amazing. It was like having a very powerful shower or being in a car wash. The boat went so close to the falls that all the water came at such force and showered us completly. We were completely drenched. It was so much fun. Everyone on the boat were so happy and we were all screaming and laughing. Our boat then went into an even bigger waterfall and that was the Best experience. The boat went in twice. After the splash ride, we sailed around seeing all the major falls - there are 275 falls!. It is such a spectacular sight. It is waterfalls falling with such power, force, noise and the sun was shining and the rainbow was out. Just amazing. As the boat ride ended, we were left on part of a hill to dry. It was a really hot day so the sun was strong. After 15 minutes in the sun, we took another boat across to a small Island called San Martin. It had a mini beach - and you could do treks here. We went on a small trek around the island again through rain forest. We spotted black vultures, a huge black and white lizard, probably a bit more than 0.5 m long and quite fat and very colourful big butterflies. After the trek, we left the Island and went back to the other side to start all the walking trails in the National park of the Falls. From every view, the Falls were just so impressive.The most powerful experience was when we took a mini train towards the Garganta del Diablo = theDevil´s Throat. We had to cross from the top of the falls over a river to get to the Throat. When you get there, the waterfall looks like a giant mouth just throwing million of liters of water out down to the lower river. Here is the best view. You stand so close to it and you just get completely sprayed with all the water. We could look over to the order side, to the Brasilian side and see people enjoying the views from the Brasil side. Apparently, the views and experiences are best from the Argentina side as you get very closeto the falls. In Brasil, you only get a panoramic view. After spending 8 hours in the Iguassu Falls yesterday, we were so tired and just had a dip in the swimming pool (was so nice coz it was so hot) went for dinner, had a drink in a bar and then headed backour hostel. This morning we took it easy. Had our breakfast, packed and now we are in an internet cafe just under an hour before we go on our long bus journey.WE will arrive in Sao Paolo tomorrow at 5AM. We are visting my old Brasilian University friend Henry. Amit and I have not seen him since 1998.

4 Feb 08
Rio de Janeiro
The Rio Carnival yesterday was fabulous. We had allocated seats in Sector 4 which is towards the end of the Sambodromo parade ground. We turned up with our rain coats/poncho, some snacks and water. We stood on our seats most of the time dancing samba to the beats of each Samba school taking part in the parade. Each school takes about 50 minutes to walk from the beginning of the Sambodromo to the end of it. Every school had their own theme. One was the animal theme, another the life and death theme, another the football theme, etc etc. The costumes were awe inspiring, so colourful and detailed and enormous. The parade was so festive and lively.
A little explanation below of what the Sambodromo is: The Sambodromo (also known in English as Sambadrome or Sambodrome) is the "stadium" of samba. It consists ofthe parading Avenue (also called the samba run-way)and several concrete structures for the spectators (the so called sectors) along both sides of theAvenue. The Sambodromo was designed by Brazil's world-famous architect, the modernist Oscar Niemeyer. It was purpose-built for the Samba Parade and inaugurated in1984. Being made of concrete, it seems a bit dated for today’s post-modern eyes and feels derelict if not ugly, surrounded by slums, serving only little cultural events, during the year. However, it comes to life and is really magnificentand totally overpowering, being lit up with allspecial effects, on Samba Parade nights, filled withthousands of cheering spectators and surrounded by other thousands of people who did not get in. It can seat around 60,000 people, which is already far too few for the ever growing Rio Carnival Parade.However, it cannot be rebuilt not even extended since it is under protection.The Sambodromo begins at Avenida Presidente Vargas andends in Rua Frei Caneca. The large square at the end of it, crowned by an idiosyncratic and very memorable large concrete M, is called Apotheosis Square. The parading avenue or samba run-way was named afterProfessor Darcy Ribeiro since it was decided by him tomove the Samba Parade from the city center to here. Itis 700m (half a mile) long. There are snack bars, refreshment stands and restroomsin each Sambodromo sector. In addition, everybody has access to a promenade within the Sambodromo, behind the bleachers, which is lined with restaurants, ice-cream stands, souvenir shops and some more restrooms.The Sambodromo on Samba Parade days is considered to be the safest place in South America. There is a very high concentration of international celebrities, politicians and royalties among the crowd. It is surrounded by huge fences which no-one can pass without using the gates and being checked for safety reasons.

24 Jan - 1 Feb 08
Rio de Janeiro and Ilha Grande

Being jetlagged, it does not help that I got a very bad flu just before leaving England. I am still recovering and since it is our first real day in Rio we have not done anything but just taking it easy. We are going on a full day tour tomorrow to the Jesus Christ the Redeemer statue, the Sugar Loaf mountain by cable car and various beaches and monuments. Our hotel is just three blocks away from the Copacabana Beach and you canfind every shop around here, selling everything from coconut juice, to the famous Havailanas slippers (it used to be know as a poor persons shoes but now it is fashionable), to big clay piggy banks, to diaries and clothes. The water is rough today, so no beach time today. It is ´very pretty here. Today for lunch, we tried for the firsttime the concept of eating by the kilo. This means, you fill your plate with food from a buffet, take the plate for weighing and pay for the weight of the plate. Very interesting concept. Makes you conscious of how much food you put on your plate. This concept is the PER KILO restaurants.

Our time in Ilha Grande has been relaxing. Since it has been raining so much we make the most f the tinniest bit of sun. The beaches here are lovely. We have been hanging out with Mark and Max, Lars, Carolina, Robyn, Katz and Becky - all travellers that we met on the boat in coming from Angros dos Reis to Ilha Grande.

PACKING UP

2008-02-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

22 Jan 08
Bedfordshire, England

It was strange saying "goodbye, see you in 6 months" to our colleagues, but what a feeling - off to see the world. We should probably have allowed more time to pack up our 4 years in the Docklands flat, saying our goodbyes to family and friends and organising the many last-minute things for our travels. What a hectic last week, and what a lot of things we had to do and did not manage to.
We are starting our 6 months journey through South America and Asia by catching a flight to Rio de Janeiro tomorrow morning at 7.25AM - that is in 9 hours!

This blog reflects my 6 months travel adventures with Amit through Brasil, Ecuador, Peru, Los Angeles, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia and Hong Kong (that is what is planned anyway).