My World Travels

Viva Las Vegas!

2007-11-15T03:06:00.000+08:00

We got married in Vegas and it was a blast!

Unfortunately the web cam didn't work on the night so here's a copy of the DVD :)

The DVD file was to big so I played the DVD on Marks laptop & used the web cam on mine to record it... Needless to say the quality isn't great but you'll get the general idea. The sound isn't great for the first 40seconds but after that it's ok but make sure you turn your sound right up...

ENJOY!

Alaskan Adventure

2007-09-06T14:59:00.000+08:00

Our 3 weeks in Alaska were FANTASTIC!

The scenery was breathtaking & we had a really good time.

Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Anchorage, Ak

After a 26hour flight from Singapore, my trip started in Vancouver, Canada, where I spent 2 nights at the HI-Vancouver Central Hostel, http://www.hihostels.ca/PM/en/vancouverhostel_central.aspx?sortcode=2.4.

The hostel was great, somewhat more like a hotel but with all the perks that a hostel has to offer.

I flew to Anchorage, Alaska to meet Mark, and the adventure began :) We took a few days to wind down and relax and saw a few of the local sites.

Only god knows how, but one afternoon Mark managed to convince me that it'd be a great idea to rent bikes for the afternoon. We proceeded to ride 23 MILES (not kilometers!) around the coastal trail, http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/aktrails/ats/anc/knowlsct.htm, which took us from downtown, out past the International Airport & back into the city.

As you can see form the photo it was a really pretty ride but I tell you I was sore for DAYS! Not something I'll repeat in a hurry, lol.

We easily got used to the 20 odd hours of daylight, although it was a bit strange to be walking out of a pub or restaurant at 10 or 11 at night & it's still light. It messes with you a little but the hotel we stayed at had great black out curtains, so we managed to sleep with no problems.

After winding down for a few days we rented a car and made our way slowly down to Homer. The drive was lovely. So many mountains & beautiful scenery to look at on the way.

Another airport :)

2007-06-07T06:37:00.000+08:00

Not quite sure what the last update was... :)

Mark and I have been living in Singapore for the last 4 months and he's sailing, with the ship he's building, to Alaska and I get to come home to OZ and visit everyone. Then also happen to be lucky enough to get to go and meet him in Alaska.

I have 2 hours until my flight. Why oh why do we have to be at the airport THREE hours before a flight alludes me... Yeah, yeah security, I get it but still :)

I am going to freeze my butt of at home. I have gotten used to the pleasant humidity of 32C everyday and aren't looking forward to the whole winter thing that I'm going back to. Never fear though I have the Down Jacket and thermals packed so think I'll manage to keep warm.

Its summer in Alaska so we're expecting similar weather to that of the Australian winter, lol. Should be fun though :)

Well, I'm going to go wonder around the airport, glad I brought a book with me, who'd travel with out one!

xox

Update till 13 Oct

2006-10-17T17:06:00.000+08:00

I'm now in Bangkok. Mark went back to work on Tuesday & I made my way up here. After spending a night in Phuket town I got here at 5am yesterday morning. There was nothing but rain in phuket & forcasted for at least the next 10days... Who would have guessed it... Rainy season & all ;) lol. So I thought that I'd give the beaches a miss & celebrate my 30th in Bangkok with some friends Mark & I met in Malaysia.

Mark & I had a great time in Malaysia & Singapore then once he finished his training in Singapore we ducked over to the Indonesian resort island of Bintan for 3.5 days. It was lovely! The resort had its own private beach & the sea was beautiful. Mark had a bit of uni work to do so I got to be lazy & split my time between the deck chairs by the pool & the deck chairs at the beach :) We did however go jet skiing on our last day there, which was awesome. I can see it becoming a regular occurrence. Although been blond as I am & thinking myself invincible as I haven't gotten sun burnt since I've been here... We were running late for the jet skis & I had put sunscreen on my shoulders & arms but thought my legs would be fine... ummm... well... that assumption was VERY incorrect. Afterwards, my legs weren't just red, they were bright red. It's now 4 days since & they're still red - go
Rach! :D

Oh the other exciting news is that when we were in Singapore Mark's boss, well actually the Asia-Pacific boss, took us out for dinner & offered Mark a job based in Singapore. Earlier in the week we'd gone out to the dry docks to look at some of the ships/rigs that are been built. It was great to see the ships Mark works on, all be it they were pulled apart, it was still cool. They're huge! Anyway he's been
offered a project management type role so I think he'll be in charge/involved with all the electrical design work etc for the 2 new builds.

So what does this mean I hear you ask? Well we're no longer moving to Thailand... We're moving to Singapore :D He's out on the rig at the moment so hopefully this'll be his last hitch then we'll be home in November for a friends wedding then I'm hoping that his company will have all the paper work & visa's sorted out & we'll be heading over early dec... Who knows though, the paperwork could take a while. They
arrange everything for both of us, pay for all our accommodation & expenses so it's pretty awesome. I don't know how long we'll be there but is sound like it could be 1-2years...

I won't ramble on anymore. I'm not sure where I'm going to head to next. Probably up north, will have to do a bit of research cause at the moment I have no clue :) I like the area I'm staying in Bangkok,just passed kaoh san rd, so I'll chill here a few days then head off.

Hope this makes sense, I haven't re read it so I'm sure there'll be a few mistakes... :)

South East Asia 2006

2006-09-29T10:08:00.000+08:00

Well its been a little while since I've had cause to post here but as you may have guessed from the title of this post I've made it to South East Asia!! :)

My boyfriend who works out of Asia has asked me to join him over here. We've just spent 10days in Malaysia & are now in Singapore for a few weeks as he has training here.

Malaysia was great!! Also very cheap which I tend to like too :D

We started off in Singapore. I flew in on a Wednesday evening (13th Sept 06) & Mark flew in a few hours later. The Thursday was spent getting taxi's around different places then deciding it would be good idea to get a start moving into Malaysia.

After getting a taxi to one of the major bus stations & finding out there were no buses to Malaka, Malaysia, & going oops - maybe we should have checked that out... We caught a local bus for $2.40sing across the boarder to Johor B... (JB, If you've ever read my post before you'll know I can't spell). Catching the local bus was an experience, considering we had no idea where we were going. As it was a local bus, it was crammed packed full of locals which I'm sure used the boarder crossing as a time trial for a sprint race ;) What 'we' didn't realise is that when you get off the bus if you don't rush through to exit Singapore customs you miss the bus... We only had to wait 15 min or so for the next bus, but realised why the locals have perfected the sprint to an artform.

So Singapore was exited & on to the causeway of no man's land between Singapore & Malaysia. Then comes the call of "all off". We tried to ask if we get back on the bus once we go through Malaysian customs but didn't really get an answer. The driver just pointed to the tickets & said keep and we deduced he didn't speak much english & thought we'd probably see the bus on exiting. Which we didn't,lol. Going through customs my backpack was to wide to go through the machine so the agents were like "ah, don't worry" asked where we were form & gave condolences re: Steve Irwin.

So standing on the Malaysian side of the boarder & not seeing the bus... What does one do when you don't know where you are, don't speak the language & forgot to get any money changed before going across the boarder...? Follow the crowd :D So down an escalator & through a dark & dirty underpass coming up the other side, still following the crowd & getting offered taxi rides (but no money...) I saw a money changer changed some money then we were all set to catch a taxi & asked a guy to take us to some budget accommodation, luckily he was honest & said turn left & low & behold we were in the city already, lol. We found a cheap hotel, clean enough with a shower & basin in the room but no toilet, oh & no windows... It had Air-con & you can't really complain, a double room, for under $20au a night.

What we didn't realise is that tourists don't really stop in JB. Supposedly it has a reputation... We didn't have a problem but it does explain why we got a lot of looks :)

Only one night in JB then Thursday morning we jumped on a train to take us close to Malaka. Mark decided on the first class seats. The train ended up taking about 6 hours, who would have thought that a train takes longer than a bus!

Anyway have had enough of writing for now, I wasn't going to write such a comprehensive blog just a 'we went here & there' but looks like I imparted a bit more info.

We spent 3 nights in Malaka, 1 night in KL, 2 nights in the Cameron Highlands, 2 nights in a FLASH hotel in Penang (Mark also took me to a 5 star restaurant, NZ Steak -YUM!), then 1 night on the bus (9hr) back to Singapore.

Will expand a little later :)

Friday 29th September 2006 10.55am

Last post for a while at least...

2005-01-21T10:40:00.000+08:00

I've still got heaps of photos to up load other than that not a whole lot to report on. I've spent the last 4 days at the beach, just what the doctor ordered :) I even tanned up!

Anyway. There will be more trips & more posts, I just don't know when. When I was in London I was looking in one of the TNT magazines & it listed the Wonders of the World. Hopefully some day I'll get to see more of them but I'm going to write them all here as a reminder & bold & italics the ones I've already seen.

Ancient Wonders:
Pharos (light house of Alexandria, Egypt;
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, near modern day Baghdad;
Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, modern-day Turkey;
Statue of Zeus, Olympia;
Mausoleum at Halicanassus, now south-west of Turkey;
Coloss of Rhodes, Greece;
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (the only Ancient wonder still surviving).

Forgotten Wonders:
Abu Simbel Temple, Egypt;
Angkor Wat, Cambodia;
Aztec Temple, Tenochtitian, Mexico;
Banaue Rice Terraces, the Philippines;
Borobudur Temple in Indonesia;
The Colosseum, Rome, Italy;
The Great Wall of China;
Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy;
Mayan Temples of Tikal, Guatemala;
Moai Statues Rapa Nui (Easter Island);
Mont-Saint-Michel, Normany, France;
the Thorne Hall of Persepolis, Iran;
The Panthenon, Athens, Grece;
Petra, Jordan;
Schwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar;
Stonehenge, England;
Taj Mahal, Agra, India;
Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque, Mexico;
Machu Picchu, Peru.

Moder Wonders:
Channel Tunnel;
Big Ben, London, England;
the CN Tower, Toronto, Canada;
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France;
Empire State Building, New York City, USA;
Gateway Arch, St Louis, USA;
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA;
the High Dam, Aswan, Egypt;
Hoover Dam, Aeizona/Nevada, USA;
Itaipu Dam in Brazil/Paraguay;
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota, USA;
Panama Canal;
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
Statue of Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Statue of Liberty, New York City, USA;
Suez Canal, Egypt;
Sydney Opera House, Australia.

Natural Wonders:
Angel Falls, Venezuela; Bay of Fund, Nova Scotia, Canada;
Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA;
Great Barrier Reef, Australia;
Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina;
Karkato Island; Indonesia;
Moun Everest, Nepal;
Mount Fuji, Japan;
Mount Kilimanjoro, Tanzania;
Niagara Falls, Canada/US; Parcutin Volcano, Mexico;
Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe.

Well, I've seen quite a few but looks like there's loads more to do, so there'll just have to be more trips to post on :o)

I'm Home!

2005-01-08T14:25:00.000+08:00

I'm back in Oz... I got here this morning, can't tell you how excited I was to be back in the country, I still am but I'm just a tad tired :) I was going to try & make it through till bed time to night so I could start a propper sleeping cycle & get over the whole jet lag thing but I just don't think it's going to happen!

There was a big drama with my bags when I left heathrow & they stuffed up my gluten free meals & connecting flights etc but it all got sorted, I leave that story for another time. When I finally walked out of the arrivals gate expecting to see only my mum & litle bro (which in its self is awesome cause. man. 5.30am...!), some of my best friends were there as well! I can't tell you how over the moon I was! I'm still so excited about it now.

Well need to go have a nap.

Oh, & btw - I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home

Have I mentioned that I'm really happy to be home :) Hope to catch up with you all real soon - once jet lag passes anyway!

P.S - no spell check 2day, Sorry, brain really not functioning!

xoxox

Sydney, Australia, Saturday 8th of January 2005, 5.35pm

It's almost over...

2005-01-04T22:19:00.000+08:00

I'm back in London, I fly out Thursday night & get home Saturday morning. I know I haven't really updated much on Europe. I will when I get a chance, probably form home...

Tomorrow I've booked in for a day trip down to Stonehenge so that should be good.

Well I have to go & pack & figure out how much I can leave behind, I know I'm probably way over the weight limit...

Earls Court, London, England - Tuesday 4th January 2005, 1.30pm

It's Two Thousand And Five!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-01-01T23:59:00.000+08:00

O.M.G. 2005! Who'd believe it's the start of another year and I'm going to be home soon! How bloody freaky is that! My tickets are changed & I'll be home on the 8th... Just over a week... O.M.G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, at present I'm in Amsterdam & all I can say is at 5pm in the afternoon & I'm still hung over. We brought cheap champa's in Germany, go the 2 euro bottles! In the hour & a half we had to get ready & Mel & I managed to down a bolttle each followed by some vodka. Needless to say it was a tad messy to start with then as we sobered up it turned into a great night. The atmosphere in the Dam square was great! We managed to stay out partying till 5am then caught a taxi back to the hotel where the doggie taxi driver tried to rip us off but I caught him out :o) Go me!

Can't believe I haven't updated since Switzerland! There has been so much to write about but I honestly haven't had time. Highlights, Venice was amazing & Prague was beautiful. So much more to say but not enough time...

Back to London tomorrow so I'm going to chill for a bit, head on down to Stonehenge then home I come!

Happy New Years everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love to all!!

Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1st January 2005, 5.08pm

Europe thus far:

2004-12-16T22:47:00.000+08:00

Paris was awesome, really one of the prettiest cities I've seen in a while. For a split second I got excited to be traveling again then I started coughing again & my nose started running, again... Honest I'm not really sad, bitter & twisted, just kinda sick. I managed to power through Saturday & half of Sunday, taking in the Eiffel tower & so many other sights I can't name now (but will do later). Then crashed at the hotel about 5pm. I woke up on Monday morning & I swear was the sickest I've ever been.

Spent Monday on the bus traveling to Interlarken in Switzerland. The scenery we were going passed was beautiful! Like it was dusted with icing sugar. All white & magical. Lots of villages with church towers etc. We got to Switzerland early evening & the Drs were closed. To cut a long story short I kinda managed to sleep through Switzerland but got to see a bit of it while getting lost trying to find my way to the Drs the next day & that's about it. Turns out I had a throat infection, fever & bronchitis. Yay! Go me! At least when I get sick I do it properly, explains why I felt like death anyway. The nice Dr gave me drugs & now I'm starting to feel better.

Yesterday the drive form Switzerland into Italy was spectacular. The mountains, lakes & frost combination were breath taking. I'm now in Milan, where it's a tad dreary... Have done a bit of a walking tour & looked at a church, Oprah house & castle. Now I'm going to have a quick look in the shops & go back to the hotel cause I'm still not feeling crash hot.

Milan, Italy, Thursday 16th December 2004, 15.12

Off to Europe tomorrow...

2004-12-11T04:21:00.000+08:00

Wow the last 2 weeks seem like they have lasted for ever but they've actually gone really quickly, I know, I make so much sense! Quite a few days were written off because I've been sick but all the same I've enjoyed London.

It's really bad because I don't know what I've been up to. Well I do but I can't really remember the sequence of events‏... I blame it on been sick...

Monday I didn't end up doing anything. I found a massage place though & my shoulder's not quite so sore now which is great.

Now this is where it gets fuzzy, I think Tuesday was spent wondering round Notting Hill Gate, Kensington Gardens & Kensington Palace then jumped on the tube & went to & saw St Paul's Cathedral on my way to London Museum where I spent half the day wondering round learning how London came to be.

Wednesday I caught up with Martyn who I met in Bolivia. It was a great day. We got tickets to Les Mis for 25pounds. It was fantastic!! I really love the theater. So I've now been to Lester square & the west end & wondered down Regent Street & looked at all the pretty christmas lights.

Yesterday was a total write off! I got up went to the internet, felt like crap went to the chemist got some drugs then came back to the hostel & proceeded to sleep for most of the day. Last night I caught with Simon who I met in Turkey which was great. Although drinking on cold & flu tablets isn't such a wise idea… :)

Today I was so tempted to sleep all day but Simon, who I was staying with in Stoke, came down to London, so I spent most of the day with him wondering round the city. It was cool just to walk around. I've been a bit lazy & have been catching the tube so it's a bit hard to fit everything together & figure out how the city works so it was really good just to wonder round. We walked down Oxford Street & went to Selfridges which is a huge department store, very, very expensive, & I was tempted to spend 60pounds on a small pink leather bound diary, it was so cute! I've walked through places like Mayfair, Trafalgar square, Bond Street plus sqillions of other places that appear on the monopoly game board :D Very cool!

Tonight instead of going out partying like all decent backpackers do I'm having a quite night… Not to mention having to pack :( The tour leaves at 7am tomorrow morning so I've got a pretty early start & have to try to get form Earls Court to Bayswater on the tube then find the departure point… Shouldn't be too hard but I think I'll have to leave here about 6.15am or maybe 6am to be on the safe side.

Well, tomorrow I'll be in France… Oh what life! :D

Earls Court, England, Friday 10th December 2004, 6.50pm

I'm sick…

2004-12-06T22:14:00.000+08:00

Not sure of the last time I posted. I've just spent the weekend staying at my friend Kate's place which was cool. It was nice to chill out, even though I seem to have been doing quite a bit of that lately.

I got back to London on Wednesday & have really only made use of Thursday by going to the V&A museum (Victoria & Albert) & the Natural History museum. I really enjoyed wandering round on my own again. Thursday night I was introduced to the Red Back in Acton town but it was a little quiet so we moved on to the Slug & Lettuce in Fullum w‏‏hich was packed. I met up with Helen & Kim who I was with in the Middle East & Jordan who I met in Portugal.

I don't think I actually did anything Friday except recover form Thursday night… Unless changing my flights counts as something. I'm coming home… Scary!!!! Beginning of Feb I'll be back in Oz. Oh, I was supposed to go out with Kim Friday night but I bailed then some of the boys from the hostel dragged me out to the Red Back… So the quiet night I hoped for didn't happen. Saturday I caught a train to Welling & I stayed at Kate's Saturday & Sunday. Saturday night we went to an Irish pub with lots of English people in it :D then on to a 4 story club called venue, 12 pounds to get in! It was a good night though.

Yesterday, Sunday, we went to Greenwich Park & looked through the observatory where time is taken from, well you know what I mean, & I stood on with one foot on either side of the meridian line – cheesy tourist!

Greenwich was lovely, kinda reminded me of the Rocks in Sydney. We wandered through the park, round the markets then down to the river. It was a really nice day out. I think that everything's catching up with me though. I've got a cold coming on & my shoulder's been aching for the last few weeks (combination of cold weather & carrying my pack (?)). I don't know if it's just my attitude or cause I'm feeling sick but I really can't be bothered doing anything… Maybe I'm just lazy :D

The hostel I'm staying at is cool, very laid back. I don't mind just chilling out here which is good… & bad cause it means I'll sit here & chill instead of going out exploring. Oh well, such is life :D

This afternoon I'm planning on doing a few things‏, I can't just waste a whole day… or can I… ;) I thought I might as well go on the London Eye & was thinking before that I could go for a wander round Notting Hill. I'll see how I feel after I've been up to the internet. Or maybe, I'll just see if I can find somewhere to get a massage that'll hopefully stop my shoulder aching...

Because I'm lacking motivation & can't be bothered figuring it out by myself I'm going to take a day tour down to Stonehenge for 57pounds, actually there's a 3 day tour that goes down that way that costs 70pounds… plus you pay for accommodation, I might h‎‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ave a look at that for when I get back from Ireland… Decisions, decisions…

Earls Court, London, England – Monday 6th December 2004, 11.52am

Wales

2004-12-02T03:48:00.000+08:00

I seem to be getting around a bit, don't I! :) I'm still in Wales, will be heading back to London on the train this afternoon. It's been lovely staying with
Rhi & her parents. Rhi's taken Johannas & I to do quite a bit of sight seeing which has been great. We came to Wales on Sunday & I slept most of the trip,
nothing to do with having a hang over - HONEST ;) - though I was awake when we crossed over from England into Wales. The sun was shining & it's been lovely
weather for us here. Sunday night when we arrived at Rhi's, her mum had a lovely Roast dinner ready for us. I didn't realise how much I've missed my greens!

Monday we went to Castle Coch. It's pretty much a fairy tail type castle with turrets & it's lovely. We then went to Cardiff bay & had a late lunch & walked
around & looked at the new millenium centre. Who says those interactive display things are only for kids! We had a great time :) We then went into Cardiff,
looked around town, saw the castle then watched the ice skating opposite the town hall. It was lovely! (I seem to be using that word quite a lot, please forgive!).

Wales really is nice. The scenery is 'lovely'! Hill sides, lots of trees, cute British terrace houses with chimneys gushing smoke. Really nice.

Tuesday we set off for England, about a 40 min drive from where Rhi lives & looked around Bath. The Roman baths there are pretty cool, I must admit that I'm a
bit blase about ruins now, though. It was really good to have the audio guide as it did give quite a bit of history which was interesting. Whether I like it or not I think I'll be a little more educated before I get home :) !! Bath is quite a pretty town/city. The shops are really nice & the buildings are all made out of the Famous Bath stone, which is yellow in colour. It'd have been great to have had money to spend in Bath but it was a tad expensive. It even cost me £8 to get in to have a look at the Roman baths, but such is life - & it was worth it.

I'm at Rhi's work now and 'Hannas & I are going to catch the train back to London about 1pm. My tour of Europe is all booked for the 11th of December, so I'll
have a bit of time to chill out. Planning on catching up with quite a few people so I can't wait. Looks like I'll be staying at my friend Kate's place on the
weekend but after that I'm not sure.

I explored London a little on the weekend, so more of that to come. Then the only other thing I really want to do is catch a show. Lion King's on at the moemnt
so I'm hoping to book & go that.

Must go - trying to sort out flights & things - oh the fun of it... I tell you I'm not looking forward to lugging thoes bags around. I can handle the back pack
but I've still got my shisha pipe & turkish rug in another bag - I swear they are going to kill me! I looked at storage at Paddington Station - £5.50 per day... umm think I'll leave it. It must look hilarious though, this short, little thing with a huge backpack on her back, another bag on her front & pulling along a rather large duffel bag type thing on wheels. It will kill me I'm sure...

Umm not much else, think I forgot to mention that I cut my hair a few weeks ago. Was annoying me, the hairdresser didn't to the best job in the world but it's ok.

Well, must go xoxox

Newport, Wales - Wednesday, 1st December 2004, 11.25am

I'm in LONDON!!!

2004-11-28T19:47:00.000+08:00

I got here Friday afternoon & honestly can't believe I'm doing the back packing thing again - lugging all my stuff around... but what do you do ???

It was sad to say good bye to everyone in Stoke, I was lucky to meet some really awesome people but I'm sure we'll keep in touch :)

London's been great. I met up with Karl, John, Maz & Rhi Friday afternoon/evening. Then I quickly got to catch up with Kate who I'd posted some stuff over to, so now I have my boots! I'm so happy :)

Friday night we went out to Covent Garden, to a place called "Henry's", then yesterday we wandered about & did some sight seeing. Last night we went to a club near Picadilly Circus called "Eembassy". Bloody expensive!!! £7 for a drink - 1 drink & £15 to get in. Had a fantastic night though. Excellent music :)

I'm going to go to Wales with Rhi for a few days. John has come from Vienna & Rhi has invited both of us back to stay with her for a few days & she will take us to do a bit of sight seeing, which should be good.

I'll be back in London on Wednesday, so that gives me a bit of time before the 10th just to hang out & catch up with a few more friends. Oh, Friday night I got to
catch up with Helen & Tracey, who I met in the Middle East. It was so great to see Helen. She's back to the Middle East next week, so hope I get to see her again when I get back Wednesday!!!

Anyway, very, very, very, hung over at the moment!!! I HATE hotel check out times of 10am - They suck! ;)

Earls Court, London, England Sunday 28 Nov 10.37am

The rough plan...

2004-11-23T10:50:00.000+08:00

No posts in ages then 2 with in the space of a hour!

Things are still as clear as mud but I'm getting there :)

26/11 - 28/11 Catch up with friends in London
29/11 - 0‏2/12 London, sight see & catch up with more friends :D
03/12 – 05/12 West England 3 day tour
‏05/12 – 10/12 ????
11/12 – 02/01 ‏European 23 day Tour with Kumuka
02/01 overnight it to Ireland even though I'm going to be buggered
03/01 – 05/01 Northern Ireland 3day tour…
06/01 meet up with a friend that I met in the Middle East, in Dublin???
07/01 – 09/01 Western Ireland 3day tour…
10/01 – 15/01 Denmark?? Meet up with friends I met in Rio & a friend I met traveling in OZ?
17/01 – 23/01 Full Monty 7 day tour of England
24/01 – 04/02 ????? This actually gives me an extra week & a half… maybe I could do some independent travel after all & not do so many tours!!!! Hmmm, interesting… more to think ‏‏‏‏‏about…

07/02 – latest I can be back in Sydney…

None of this is set in stone. The only one I have to decide on pretty soon is the Kumuka tour… If I book before the 30th I'll get a 10% discount…

Tuesday 23rd November 2004 1.58am

I'm still alive! :D

2004-11-23T08:40:00.000+08:00

Hope you haven't given up on me & are still reading! Basically I've just been busy working & trying to sort out "the grand plan" :)

Looks like I've changed my ideals & what I want out of life - sounds pretty profound right hehehe. Well basically I handed my notice in at work today & had Friday & Saturday off anyway to head down to London so looks like I'm going to go down there & not come back here.

Why you might ask have I handed my notice in at work. The other day I sat down & tried to figure out what I wanted & I've decided to come home & study. Just a bit of a side step... I've really loved traveling but I'm ready do something with myself. There's still so much more I want to see & do but it can wait.

I've decided to take on a Diploma of Remedial Massage. It starts early Feb so it looks like I'm coming home much sooner than expected. It's a 1 year course 9am till 5.30pm Mondays, Tuesdays & Thursdays. I just spoke to a course advisor, enrolled online & paid the no refund deposit - so looks like I'm doing it!!!!! Fingers crossed for me guys. Those of you in Sydney I expect to see the biggest & I mean BIGGEST party ever when I get home. I can't tell you how excited I am because I'm going to be seeing everyone soon! Yes, I know even though I'm slack at keeping in touch. Oh & Claire, so sorry I haven't emailed you! I keep meaning to...

I only really decided all of this yesterday, well the course I've been thinking about for a week or so but yesterday was decision day so now I've got to plan all the traveling I want to do, let alone fit it all into 8 weeks... Once I know the plan I'll post it.

Sorry I haven't been posting! Honestly, there's been nothing of intrest to write about, that's all about to change though :)

xoxox

Hanley, Stoke-On-Trent, England, Tuesday 23rd November 12.52am

I got out of Hanley!!

2004-11-09T08:20:00.000+08:00

Just a quick post :D

Yesterday (sorry, Sunday) afternoon I jumpped on a trian, went to Manchester & caught up with Nat (who I met when I was traveling in oz). It was so good to see her!!!!

That's all for now.

same place as last time, 9th November 2004 12.23am

Thought I'd lost the bug...

2004-11-03T17:54:00.000+08:00

To my relief I've finally started planning again. For a while there I just couldn't be bothered. I think I've sussed out Scotland, Ireland & England. I've realised that in order for me to get home in April I have to try & get in as much as possible. I've got till Christmas here in the Midlands then only 3 months till my ticket expires form then (April). The easiest way to do this is on tours... I've decided no more long tours, I think I'd go insane so have looked at a combination of little tours...

The plan thus far - 3day tour of Scotland, I can always go back for more if I actually make it back over here, plus I'm looking at going end of Dec, beginning of Jan so it's going to be bloody freezing. Combination of 2 x 3day tours in Ireland if the dates work out & last but not least 1 x 7 day tour & 1 x 3 day tour of England & I pretty much think that leaves me to see Europe. The plan of attack is still been mulled over. I am hoping to meet up with Eve in mid March in Bangkok, which would be awesome! So that leaves me approx 1 & a half months in Europe. All I want at the moment is a taste.

I haven't decided yet if I'll keep traveling once I get home or not. Two of my best friends a pregnant & are due round May/June, my ticket runs out in April & I've decided I do want to come home for a bit of a break so it looks like I might stick round for 3 or 4 months then maybe back over here (UK) to get a 'proper' job so I can save some serious money then experience India, Siberia & Asia on the way home... My working visa, for the UK, runs out in May 06... Who knows!

Anyway got to get ready for work, at least I'm planning again!! Yay!

Hanley, England, Wednesday 3rd November 10.15am

Still in Hanley...

2004-10-27T04:27:00.000+08:00

Looks like I'll be staying here for a bit. I haven't been up to anything exciting so nothing to report on... have just been working & on my nights off chilling out.

I have however loaded the last of my photos form the middle east :)

Still in the same place, England, Tuesday 26th October 2004, 9.30pm

Photos...

2004-10-18T03:33:00.000+08:00

I've just down loaded some more photos, Aswan in Egypt to Allepo in Syria. Be warned there are over 300!

This last week has been interesting. I'm not sure now if I'll be staying in Hanley. A few things happened at work last weekend, lots of politics that I don't need. So I told the boss I wouldn't be staying. This week however, has been ok & if they can't find anyone else then I'll stay. If not, I'll probably head on down to London, all will be revealed next week.

I'm staying at Simons & he's happy for me to continue to stay here for a bit which is great. I've been here 3 weeks & I'm used to it now plus Simon & I get along really well which is a bonus :o)

Ummm, only other thing to report on is that I had a fantastic birthday on Tuesday. Oh, that & on Monday I went & got my tattoo made bigger. Well I should say added to. Other than that I've just been working so haven't done much sight seeing. I did however go out & buy a Europe Lonely Planet so will have to do a bit of home work to figure out the plan of attack!

Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England - Sunday 17th October 2004 - 8.58pm

Liking it here.

2004-10-08T17:58:00.000+08:00

Forgot to post this the other day... Opps!!!

I've got tonight off & honestly I can’t really be bothered writing now. I've had such a good afternoon. I finished work about 2.30/3pm ‎‎‎‎‎then went for a wonder to the local supermarket (Tescos). Such a different lay out to what I'm used to. I decided to go looking some gluten free goodies but turns out I was looking in the wrong places. It just feels so good to be doing normal things again. Even things like drinking tap water & been able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. Anyway back to my afternoon, the kitchen wanted me to get some frilly salad stuff but I couldn't find it so I txt Simon & he said he was going to get a few things so picked me up & we went to PC world & got a wan card for my lap top 25pounds so now I can take my pc into work sit at a table & surf the net :o) I'm a happy girl. Then we went to sainsberries, another supermarket. I found rice milk & gluten free bread. Tonight for dinner I had vegetable soup with toast – first time I've eaten bread since I left home, it was soooo good! It cost a bit, 2.50 pounds but it was nice, not as dense as some others I've had. Tonight I've come back to where Simons & I've done some washing & watched a couple of DVD's its so nice to just curl up on the sofa & watch a couple of good Movies. It feels normal.

Ok, bit more about where I am & what I'm doing. I still haven't moved to where I'm going to be staying yet, will do on Thursday. Our hours have been sorted out which is great, I start work at 11.30am finish at 2.30/3pm start again at 4.30 finish about 11.30pm. It's not flat out all the‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ time so its not to bad. We have Sunday off & I get Tuesday & Thursday nights off too. The owners & other staff are great & we have our locals which can be a lot of fun. I was a bit spun out yesterday though, with some guy chatting me u. I can do the whole flirt thing – no big deal, it's all part of the job but he was like, you caught my eye on Friday I was like oh yeah laughed it off etc, then I was putting some stock away & he saw my tattoo & was like what does it mean? I told him – happiness & he was like "yeah I think it does" – ICK! Then anyway I'm doing stuff, & he's like I think you're a perfect 10 & I'm like, I wouldn't go that far, laughed it off again. Then proceeded to avoid the top bar till he left…

Hanley reminds me a little bit of Hamilton, in New Zealand where I lived before I moved to Oz. Not sure why. I'm not minding the weather either. It’s a nice crisp cold, kinda wet most of the time though. Saturday night we stayed after work & had a few drinks & I got out my shisha pipe which was great. I've now taken to drinking cider – much cheaper than vodka :o) On my day off on Sunday I slept in a bit then went up to work & Simon told me about some markets so I went for a walk & ended up buying some tops, they were really cheap which was great! When I went up to the shopping centre yesterday I saw one of them for 15.99pounds, I got it for 6! Bit of a difference huh!

Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England - Tuesday 6th October 2004.

‏Enjoying being here but feeling frazzeled…

2004-09-29T23:13:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure if I'm cut out for such long days & I'm finding it a bit hard. Not to mention the blisters on my feet kill. I even have the proper blister plasters but I don't think they are made to stand up to 12-14 hour days whilst on your feet the whole time. My new shoes were fine & I'd been wearing them close to 2 weeks then had to carry my pack & I wore them… Stupid, should have worn my hiking boots. Not to worry.

Anyway back to work. I've only given it 2 full days & I'm sure I will get use to it. I think it's only cause I'm new that I'm having to stay there the whole day & from next week I think we'll start arranging days off etc. Everything is very organized it seems, except for the staff. It's more a play it by air approach, which is fine but it'll be nice to have things sorted. So far I seem to be spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen, dam that catering qualification – even though it's 9 years old! I'm actually enjoying it (don't tell anyone though). The only thing that sucks is that I can get in & help out but they haven't shown me the meal prep etc so I feel a bit useless. The bosses will say you can help the chef in the kitchen & I'm like cool but when I ask him what he wants me to do the answer is nothing,… then the boss comes in & is like" I'll come back here & help" which makes me want to scream "I can bloody well do it, just tell me what!". I got a tad pissed off yesterday but I'm over it now.

On Sunday I'll go to my new abode which will be great. I really can't wait to get settled. The cycle starts again. I've got to get up now, have a shower then get to work.

Oh, yesterday morning I opened my English bank account with HSBC. It was so easy, I've heard some real horror stories about people trying to open bank accounts here so are feeling quite lucky.

Sorry for not responding to emails, I can do it at work when it's not busy but my mind just isn't with it. Will try to send a few quick responses today.

So much to update & it’s a race against time! ‏

2004-09-26T23:40:00.000+08:00

I have to find an English power converter for my laptop, I forgot to get one in Turkey.

I haven't updated in a few days so just to quickly fill in the gaps. I wasn't going to apply for jobs in England till I got here but I had a quick look on the net when I was in Istanbul to see what was about and there was one that really jumped out at me, so I had to apply. My boss wrote back saying I sounded like just the person for the job & told me to come on up as soon as I arrived in the UK. I flew into London about 8pm local time on Friday night (2hrs diff from Turkey) got to a hostel near Victoria Station in London about 10.30pm, woke up early & caught the 7.30am bus to Hanley, Stoke on Trent, a 3.5hr bus trip & started learning the ropes about 12pm & got to sleep about 1am this morning.

It's such a fantastic place & I'm so glad that I'm here. The bar & grill is one of the best I've seen. It manages to encompass 3 different styles of establishments very, very well. That of a fantastic restaurant with great food & a menu that changes daily; that of an awesome chill-out coffee shop with big comfortable sofas; & that of a pub. At any one time you can look around & see people involved in any one of these activities, very happily. The owners are really cool, too & everyone gets along fantastically. Needless to say, I'm very happy. I wasn't too sure what to expect when I got here. I thought that I'd have to sit down & go through an interview etc, but nope, I just got straight on in there.

The other thing that I'm really pleased about is that I will be doing a bit of everything. Bit of prep in the kitchen, dishes (I'm very weird – actually enjoyed doing this yesterday) & serving at the bar. It's all set up so well, the till system is computerized, food orders get sent electronically to the kitchen, & now it's just a matter of me getting super quick at using it. I've mastered the coffee machine. Still have to get the tap beer names down pat. I've never heard of them before – John Smith, Bommer, Miller & there's about 4 others as well. I'm getting the table numbers, slowly, & most of the drinks are straight forward, except things like bitter shandy & wine spritzers. I thought I knew how to do most things! Oh, the wines, too. Got to master them. They make it so easy, though. Everything is so organized!

I was so happy to go to sleep last night! My last night in Istanbul (Thursday night) I ended up going out with several guys from the hostel. Joel & Nick (who are from Bristol) & Craig (Aussie from Bondi), & only had about an hours sleep before I had to get up, pack & check out of my room. Friday night I didn't sleep very well, either. It was a 6 bed hostel room & people got up at 3am, as happens in dorms. I can't tell you how happy I am to be settling down somewhere for several months (just hope it stays that way, hehehe).

Sunday we're ("we're", hehehe) closed but everyone meets up for Sunday lunch. I believe today it's roast Lamb. I'm going to get fed very well here! Last night it was an awesome Shepard's pie. So good to be eating normal food again. The other thing that I think is quite cool is that I won't be living on site. I'll be about a 5min walk away, but they pay my rent. So the deal is I take home a minimum of £170 per week (over $400au) with no expenses, accommodation & food are included. They are even going to reimburse me for the bus ticket to get here.

Umm what else, I'm still kinda in La La land. I don't think that I expected things to happen quite so quickly but I'm happy they have. I wonder how many times I've mentioned the word happy in this post. Do you think I could be pleased? ;o)

A few more things I forgot to mention. They have broadband internet set up there & I can be standing at the second bar area behind the counter using a wall mounted screen to check my email or internet. Plus! I can get a wireless card for my laptop & have access anywhere in the establishment! So the things that I generally spend money on – Accommodation, food & internet now no longer cost me anything!

Oh & my tongue is doing well – on to solid food. Didn't get to go back for a smaller bar on Friday. Didn't have enough time. So I'll have to find one here. I'll also get a pre-paid sim for my mobile here, too. Oh & Monday they are going to help me open a UK bank account (which can be very very hard to do here, believe it or not) & help me organize tax numbers etc. It's all just too easy!

Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent – England, Sunday 26th September 2004, 11.20am

Life of a Traveller:

2004-09-26T23:01:00.000+08:00

A friend jsut sent this to me. Believe it or not these are all pretty factual! Oh & I keep forgetting to say I posted some Egypt photos a while ago :)

Try this at home for the true backpacking experience

1) Replace your bed with two or more bunk beds, and invite random people to sleep
a) with you or
b) in your bedroom every night.

2) Ensure that a couple gets drunk and shags on one of the top bunks at least once a week. Loosen the bolts on the bunk to ensure a healthy squeak...this will no doubt provide you and your new roomies with a special understanding of the art of drunk shagging (bump, oww, snore, thud, flush,bump, bump, snore). This exercise will also increase your tolerance for such activities after a combination of alcohol, sleep deprivation & dementia take over during the following night and you find yourself sleeping like a baby under a squeaky gyra! thing bunk that's been converted into a sex machine of sorts.

3) Sleep in your sleeping bag, forgetting to wash it for months. Add some bed bugs (yes, they exist) in order to wake up with many unsightly bites all over your arms and legs.

4) Enlist the help of a family member to set your radio alarm to go off randomly during the night, filling your room with loud talking. This works best if the station is foreign. Also have several mobiles ringing, without being answered. To add to the torture, ask a friend to bring plastic bags into your room at roughly 6 in the morning and proceed to rustle them for no apparent reason for a good half an hour.

5) Keep all your clothes in a rucksack. Remember to smell them before putting them on and reintroduce the! use of the iron SLOWLY.

6) Buy your favourite food, and despite living at home, write your name and when you might next be leaving the house on all bags. This should include mainly pasta, 2 minute noodles, carrots and beer.

7) Ask a family member to every now and again steal an item of food, preferably the one you have most been looking forward to, or the most expensive. Keep at least one item of food far too long, or in a bag out in the sun. This will ensure that you spend the next 24 hours within sprinting distance of a toilet.

8) Even if it's a Sunday, vacate the house by 10 a.m., and then stand on the corner of the street looking lost. Ask the first passer-by of similar ethnic background if they have found anywhere good to go yet.

9) When sitting on public transport (the London Tube would be ideal) introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you, say which stop you got on at, where you are going, how long you have been travelling for and what university you went to. If they say they are going to Morden, say you met a guy on the Central Line who said it was terrible and that you've heard Parsons Green is better and cheaper. If they are cute...try and shag them after a cask of wine in the Parsons Green hostel.

10) Finally stick paper in your shower so that the water comes out in just a drizzle. Adjust the hot /cold taps at regular intervals so that you are never fully satisfied with the temperature. Because of this frustration, shower infrequently...!

I'm on a new weight loss scheme…

2004-09-21T02:27:00.000+08:00

Umm, no seriously, I got my tongue pierced today… Mum, it was safe & clean, I swear! :o)‎‏

I've been planning on doing it for a while & the other day when Helen & I were looking for hair dressers I came across a pretty decent looking tattoo & piercing salon. I've been a bit run down & had a cold sore so I wanted to wait till I felt a bit better so I didn't get it done when I first came across them but today I had to go to Taxsim, where I saw the salon, to get my flights changed (which cost me $200us btw!) so thought I might as well do it. It only cost 50,000,000 TL (just under $50au). It was cool too cause last night I met a great guy called Jukesey & I told him that I was going to get it done today & he was like I'll come with you. So I didn't have to go by myself which was good. I always freak out that I'll chicken out before I get something done so it's nice to have some moral support. The barbell that the guy put in is slightly to big which sucks. I know it should be big to accommodate the swelling but it's still a bit big for that so I'll go back tomorrow afternoon to get a slightly smaller one then Friday morning to get the right size. I should have eaten a big ass meal before I got it done too, cause even trying to eat yoghurt earlier was a bit of a mission, hence my new weight loss scheme, hehe! It wasn't to painful & even now isn't really that sore, more just a little uncomfortable & I can't talk properly, cause it’s a bit swollen... I hoping it doesn’t affect how I talk on a permanent basis...

I know I still haven't finished writing about the rest of my travels in Turkey & I still have the 9th, 10th & 11th to catch up on from the tour but I've just gotten plain lazy. It's funny I usually really enjoy writing my posts but the last week I just haven't had it in me. So major highlights form the 3 days I haven't caught up on – Ephesus, said to be one of the most complete roman cities (ruins) left; Troy – as in the wooden horse & city ruins; Anzac Cove/Gallipoli; then of course Istanbul.

I don't know why but I really like Istanbul & each day I stay here it's growing on me. This afternoon I was on the bus coming back from Taxsim, crossing over the bridge looking at the water way & awesome skylines, I decided that I'd be coming back here at some stage to work. It’s the first city that’s well & truly grabbed me. I've walked through many cities in quite a few different countries & thought to myself "I could live here" but with Istanbul I really hope I'll act on it one day. I'll just have to try & learn Turkish which is really hard…

I've been doing a bit of sight seeing but nothing to strenuous. I've done a bit of shopping too… I can't tell you how sick of my clothes I was getting, don't know if I mention it but my cargos were falling apart after the months of hard slog I've put them through. I've mana‎‎‎‎‎ged to buy a pair of Levis engineered jeans…a pair of cargos, some ridiculously expensive shoes that I think are wonderful (which are also practical), a jumper, plus a top. Sad thing is I feel like I've been on the biggest shopping spree in the world! The only other thing I'm going to buy while I'm here is a throw rug to go on a bed or something, some of them are really lovely & man, how can I leave Turkey with out getting one. Plus I think I can pick one up for about $40au.

Oh & like I said I changed my flights. I fly to London on the 24th so now it's all settled I have to figure myself out. I also changed my other destinations too so Louise honey, if you're reading, I'm going to come visit you in Denmark at some stage! Hope uni is going well too. Then the plan is in March to spend a couple of weeks in Thailand before coming home for a visit. I so can't wait to see everyone. When I left I didn't plan on using the last part of my ticket but I figure it'd be great to pop home for a visit & get another round the world ticket so I can continue on.

I'm going to try & drink some more yoghurt now, wish me luck1 xox

Istanbul – Turkey, Monday 20th September, 8.20pm

I just spoke to my little bro & my mummy :o)

2004-09-17T23:25:00.000+08:00

(WARNING: Rather long pos...)

I was just walking past a row of phone boxes & there was a lady selling phone cards so I thought why not call home. I have a very bad attitude at the moment when it comes to money… I'm spending it… but I haven't gone 'totally' crazy, it's been a while since I've talked to mum & it was only a $10 phone card. Don't know why but I kinda got the impression that mum had really been stressing cause I haven't been emailing or posting as much as normal. Just to clarify for everyone - the Middle East (or at least where I am & have been) is safe. Of course you have to use common sense, as per everywhere in the world, but really there is nothing to worry about! K?!

I'm totally going in to relaxation mode. It's fantastic & I'm having a blast! I've had approximately 30min to a hours sleep at the most & I've just drunk a red bull cause I don't want to waste today. Think I'll have a bit of a nap later though... I feel slack cause I haven't been posting but‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏, ahhh, such is life, I'm having fun & really like Istanbul :o) Everyone will be gone in a few days though & I'll have a week here by myself so I'll see how I get on. Great thing about staying in hostels though is you meet heaps of people, think I'm going clubbing with a group tonight… that is if I make it with out falling asleep.

It's so hard to post now…. Think my brain has decided to go on strike….I'm finally starting to relax & think I've just gotten plain lazy.

I can't believe I'm 16 days behind with my posts 5 of those days are Istanbul which isn't too bad. They pretty much consist of shopping, walking around, eating & DRINKING :o)

Ok here we go…

After Crac de Chev we headed for Allepo (where I brought my new toy… the laptop peoples where were your minds? hehehe).

2/9 – We arrived in Aleppo sometime around lunchish & were booked in for a walking city tour with a very cool guide, but I can't remember his name – Helen just told me his name is Achmed. We walked through the souk, which is pretty much a ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ market place that has everything. There are basically shops on either side & corridor in between is covered in high arch ways & its nice & cool inside. Souks are quite similar everywhere & are pretty cool. We saw quite a few things but my mind is mush… although I really enjoyed visiting an old a mental hospital. Maybe I felt at home – Ha J it was really cool to see how the separated the inmates in to different categories & how the illnesses were treated. After the tour Helen & I went to the computer shop to see what was on offer & try & barter a little, not that they wanted too. So we went & had dinner & went back later to pick up our toys.

3/9 – Go the 5.15am starts! They suck! At least we haven't had that many on this trip though which is a really good thing. It was quite funny, Helen is really on to it & I'd never known her to sleep in or not be somewhere waiting for us. On this morning though she wasn't there… Kim went up to the second floor of the hostel where Helens room was & started calling out her name with no such luck cause we didn’t know which room number she was in, it didn't work. So I ended up waking up one of the guys that works there to get her room number. She'd slept in… Oops, no big deal J we all went down to breakfast & she was there 5 minutes later, no big deal.

I just had a huge sleep then, Helen & I got a DVD off the guys down stairs & put a mattress on the floor in our room & watched‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ Along Came Polly on Helen's laptop. It was really cool; I haven't done anything like that‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ since I was home. It felt very normal & was a bit exciting lying on the floor watching a movie & eating corn chips J

Wow, I'm only up to Aleppo…

3/9 cont. After our breakfast we jumped on the truck & headed for Cappodoica in Turkey. So a border crossing from Syria into Turkey, the last one of the trip… In Cappodoica we had the choice of either staying in tents or in a cave. We all opted for the cave. I'd actually thought it would be a cave like a big opening in a rock face etc but it was a bit different. Basically it's been carved out of the ground & was underneath a building & had been totally fitted out with carpets. It was rather cool down there too but was so much better than having to put up a tent! Once we crossed the boarder it was amazing the instant change in scenery & also in the houses. Going form all of the houses been the same colour to different colours & designs was a bit of an eye opener too. It's funny what you get used to seeing. Also as we drove through the small towns there were no where near as many women fully covered up.

4/9 – We spent the whole day on a tour of Cappodoica which was pretty cool. We went to the ferry chambers which are pretty much lots of little pinnacles of rocks in quite a small area for want of a better way to describe it. They were pretty cool. Then on to the open air museum which was awesome. The museum consists of caves. The really interesting thing about the caves is that people used to live in then until the 1950's. Now when I say caves we're talking 3 stories that have separate rooms then for each valley of group of families a kitchen/cooking area. Most of the caves have been carved out & are fantastic. They even had churches, mosques, everything really. The only reason people moved on was there was an earthquake & people got a bit scared so created a settlement nearby.
I think my favorite part of the day though was the underground city, it was mad. To think that people actually lived there & went to all the trouble of carving it out. We were only there for 45 min on a guided tour but by the looks of it the city had everything, form ventilation shafts to pipes to bring in fresh water. It would have been so co‏‏ol to run wild there just to explore, it seemed to go on forever. It was cool J
Turkish Night. Free alco‏‏‏‏hol, need I say more…. Well, it wasn't exactly free for 25,000,000 TL (approx $23au) we got dinner & to watch belly dancers & the traditional dances of Turkey which was great. At one stage they played out a Turkish wedding which was cool then everyone was gotten up & formed a conga line & we ended up outside around a big fire which people proceeded to jump over. It was a really good night & we all proceeded to get a just a little tipsy… At about 12am the Turkish night was over so we hit a local pub called Flintstone's & partied on.

5/9 – We were actually supposed to drive then bush camp somewhere between Cappodoica & Olympos but Ian & Helen thought it would be better if we made the 10 or 12 hour drive (I can't remember which) straight to Olympos. Because there was only 5 of us it cuts down on the time for toilet stops & I think the truck actually goes faster when it's not fully loaded down so it was cool that we got to spend in the tree houses. Anyway, after an hour or so's sleep I woke up & managed to wake every one else up & got up to help Helen prepared breakfast, we were still kinda drunk though but did a good job… After brekie we proceeded to get on the truck & sleep most of the way to Olympos. In Olympos we stayed at Kadirs tree-houses. Nick, Tracey & I went on the night tour to see the eternal flames on mount Olympos – Kim & Frances weren't feeling the best so didn't come. The walk up the mountain was a bit of hike (not really that bad but the night before was a huge one so we were still recovering). It was cool to see the flames coming out of the ground & watch some one just use a lighter to bring forth a flame from supposedly nothing. Helen had given us some mash mellows so we toasted them & made a few new friends by shearing.

6/9 – The plan was to be a bit active cause Olympos has a lot of activities on offer including canyoning, rock climbing & sea kayaking just to name a few. The boys did canyoning & us girls booked in for sea kayaking but it was too windy so they cancelled it. We just ended up on the beach then hang out back at the tree houses. Helen & I were supposed to go rock climbing, which would have been cool, but I just didn't have it in me & neither did she so we gave it a miss. That night we smuggled our very 'special' water bottle in to the bar area at the tree houses. It's so much more expensive to drink in the middle east than it has been else where so buying bottles of vodka to shear works out a lot cheaper, although I believe the proprietors are always so keen on BYO hence the water bottle J At about 12am the tree house bar closes & the bull bar very near by kicks off. It was a really great night.

7/9 – The bull bar closed about 4am & Kim & I went down to the beach with 2 lovely boys that we met. We stayed down there & watched the sun rise which was cool, then made our way back to the tree houses. Waited up for breakfast at 8.30, then packed & left at about 10am, on no sleep. It was only about a 1.5 hour drive to Kas (pronounced Cash) & I slept a little for about 30 min. We were supposed to be camping but there was an upgrade option for 5 million TL a night which we all took. Just the thought of battling with a tent wasn't to appealing. Once we had our gear in our bungalows we headed into town to check out the net & I actually did a bit of shopping & brought a couple of new tops &‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ a pair of shorts. I hadn't had any sleep & managed to make it to 8.30ish pm before I completely crashed. I'd helped Helen get dinner ready then as soon as we ate it was like – "ok, have to go to bed, can't help clean up – Night".

8/9 – Great day. Kas is beautiful! Right on the Med. We spent the day on a cruise & dived off the boat in to the crystal clear waters. It was so nice just to chill out & relax. We sailed past the sunken city & just had a really good day. That night we had dinner in town then after dinner I proceeded to shop some more… only brought a singlet top & bra though. My clothes are literality falling apart after 6 months of continuous wear so I have a good excuse….

I'm going to give up for tonight. I'll eventually get up to date. It might just take me a little while.

Istanbul – Turkey, Thursday, 16th September 2004, 9.37pm

Sorry Mum!!!!

2004-09-12T14:32:00.000+08:00

Thıngs have just been so flat out so sorry for been so slack at postıng & keepıng ın touch. I'm ın Istanbul now & are planıng on stayıng here for a couple of weeks. I've booked myself ınto a hotel for a couple of nıghts, I'm ın need of a bıt of luxury, then I'm back to the hostel.

Istanbul so far ıs really nıce, not quıte what I expected I thought ıt'd be a bıt crazy but ıts not at all. Wıll get my posts up to date ın the next few days but I'm off to fınd a haır dresser before I take matters ın to my own hands & shave my head ;) Plus there are supposed to be some desıgner factory outlets Helen knows about that we're goıng to go to thıs afternoon. I'm happy to report that I once agaın love shoppıng! I was gettıng a bıt worrıed for a whıle there.

Well as always, gotta go... love ya all! xox

Istanbul - Turkey, 12th September 2004, 9,42am

Land of the good toılet stops - Turkey!

2004-09-12T14:29:00.000+08:00

Once again another real quick update – there just aren't enough hours in the day! I'm having sooooo much fun though & are still loving the middle east. I honestly can't remember the last time I updated & don't have time to go through everything but the following are the highlights, I did write a post on Lebanon though so that gives a bit of detail. Oh, I brought a laptop in Syria! Yep so even with the technology I'm not having enough time to write…

I think did a quick update when I was in Jordan ın Ammarn… so I'll take it form there.

Sat 28/08 – Ammarn. I brought the most expensive bikini that I've ever brought! For those of you who know me I'm pretty budget so spending $120au was a bit of a laugh, but what do you do when you can't find bikinis anywhere & it least it's good quality, Quick Silver. We had a pretty big night out to farewell Aaron & Kaz at a Irish pub there (like I said Irish pubs are everywhere!).

Sun 29/08 – We met Kim & Tracey who joined the tour & headed for Damascus, stopped at the roman ruins at Jearsh. Then drove to the Syrian boarder. We pretty much spent most of the day on the truck. That night Kim & Tracey wanted to go out, Syria is supposed to be 'dry but we found a hotel just down the road form the campsite that had a bar & they were playing really good music. We all got very drunk & ended up dancing on the bar, which the bar tender set alight, it was a fantastic night!

Mon 30/08 – I think pretty shattered would describe this day. We got to bed well after 4am, closer to 5 I think then had to get up at 8… it was a hard day. We wondered round the souks of Damascus & went to one of the most famous mouscus there. Ummm, quiet night J

Tue 31/8 – Went to Lebanon (read Lebanon post if you're interested)

Wed 1/09 – Huge day. Left Damascus & went to the ruins at Palmyra which were pretty cool, had lunch there then drove to Krac de Cheverlay, a huge castle which was awesome!!!! I've never seen anything like it & we had so much fun! Kim & I were racing round playing tag & getting told off by the guide. It's an amazing place, oh, & they really had a thing for pouring boiling oil on their enemies.

That's all I've got time for now… will try again in a few day…

I'm in turkey now & are having a fab time.

I am getting tired though. I think traveling for over 5 months in developing countries has really taken it out of me. Since we arrived in turkey I've been laughing at myself, when ‏‏‏‏we go past a petrol station & I go WOW – because they look like the ones we ‎have at home, same thing with the shops. More often than not we even have western toilets that SUPPLY toilet paper! & that actually get CLEANED! I don't think we've done one bush stop since we've arrived in Turkey!‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ It scares me that this is exciting :o) I've decided not to travel in Spain & France for another 4-6 weeks… I just don't think I have it in me at the moment. I need to stay put somewhere for a bit. I've changed my flights so I'm going to have 2 weeks in Turkey to chill out after the tour finishes (its soooo beauti‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏ful here!) before flying straight to London.

Kas – Turkey, Wednesday 8th September 2004,

Day trıppın Lebanon

2004-09-12T14:27:00.000+08:00

Firstly, to look at the temperature display at 10.30pm on your way back form Lebanon & for it to say 28oC & for you to ‏think to yourself 'it's a bit cool ' there has to be something wrong :o) Then again‎ you could just be in the middle east & getting used to the 40- 50oC days.

Today was really cool. So worth the $105us that we had to pay for the day trip form Syria in to Lebanon. It only took us about 3 hours to get form Damascus into Lebanon & our first stop for the day, balbek ruins. It's said to be one of the most impressive Roman sites in the Middle East & it's pretty spectacular. It's a massive temple complex & was just this really nice tranquil peaceful place. It would have been so cool just to have been able to sit there for a couple of hours and soak up the atmosphere; it had a really nice vibe to it. After spending a couple of hours at Baalbek we set off to lunch at a local restaurant which was awesome. They brought out so much food & I had the best Lamb that I've had in ages!!!

After lunch it only took a couple of hours to get to Beirut which is amazing. As we were driving down town we were driven down one of the main roads which is kno‎‎‎‎‎w as the green, or, to the locals, the red line because of all the blood that has been shed there. This road separates the Christian section of town form the Muslum section. It's been 12 years since the civil war ended (1992) in Lebanon. I knew that the country was war torn but I didn't know when the war had finished or what quite to expect. As we drove down the green line there were so many buildings that were still in a state of destruction with various types of bullet holes ‎or damage done to them. Our guide could tell which type of weapon was used by the damage done. A lot of the buildings have been left there as a reminder of what has happened in the past others the owners are still waiting for compensation form the government…

I really didn't expect to gee the sadness that over came me as we looked at these buildings & the people surrounding them as there were getting on with there daily lives. Just as an example, Sydney sides, the green line reminded me some what of Parramatta Rd (with out the car yards). Fair enough (gross generalization coming up form ignorant me) if stupid people want to act out to prove a point but these were peoples homes, lives & children…we're talking about. This is where their children slept at night… Countryman, fighting countryman over politics & religion. It really really saddened me to think of what had happened & what these people have been through & went actually experienced for 17 years before the civil war came to an end. To think that children born during that time would have only know a world in a state of warfare… It's just sad, that's all.

After the green mile we went down town & it was mind blowing to see how modern & western Beirut is. Helen & I hit the shops but I didn't really need anything so didn't part with to much money. Oh but I did buy a lip balm from the BODY SHOP! Helen had been looking for underwear through out the whole Middle East & coul‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎dn't find any‏thing decent until we got there. They even sold bikinis & pretty much everything you get at home. We spotted a Starbucks & I can't even beginning to tell you how human it felt to be able to order a herb tea & sit downstairs on comfortable sofas & chat to Helen. That’s the stuff I miss the most… After hitting the shops we grabbed some Nachos from hard rock café & headed back to the border to go back in to Syria.

It was a great day, next time I'll just make sure that I get to spend more time in Lebanon.

Damascus - Syria, 31st‎‎‎ August 2004, 11.43pm ‎‎

I've been in the DEAD SEA!!! 301674

2004-08-28T22:06:00.000+08:00

How cool is that! It was heaps of fun, I honestly didn't know what to expect. A normal sea has 3% salt content & the dead sea has 30% which is why its so easy to float. Its mad! You can lie on your back & stick both arms & both legs out of the water with out even trying to maintain your balance. Ok dead sea was this morning. I'm now in Jordan & internet here is really expensive. The Jordanian dinar is worth close to or more than the English pound!

The last week has been awesome & there are so many things to write about but I don't have time! :o(

Things I'll expand on later:
1) my shopping spree in Dahab where I only spent about $40au & got heaps of stuff.
2) how hard it is to find a bikini in a Muselim country!
2) the ferry trip from Egypt to Jordan, the 5 hour delay & the 2000 people on the boat... :)
3) Wadi Rum & how amazing it is there in the desert & my run down this massive sand dune where I managed to free fall & rolly pole down for a few seconds only to get covered in Red sand. hehehe, it was classic!!!
4)Petra - We went yesterday & it was amazing. Only problem was that I was finally struck down by a tummy bug, had to happen at least once in 5 months of traveling in developing countries I suppose... So I wasn't feeling the best but had to go, man, couldn't come all the way to Jordan & miss out on Petra! Last night we watched Indiana Jones & the last crusade which shows one of the tombs at Petra - it was surreal! But very very cool!

Times up on internet so have to go. More later. Oh & it sucks, Aaron & Karen (who I'll write more about later) leave the trip to day :o( We have 2 new people joining & the 2 boys, Nick who started with me plus Frances who joined us when we left Cairo. I'm gonna miss Karen heaps, we've had such a good time!!!!!!

Off to get ready for dinner now. We're going to a Irish pub - in Jordan! Ha! I swear there's one EVERYWHERE you go!!!

Amarn - Jordan, Saturday 28th August 2004, 5.25pm

Happy Girl Again :o)

2004-08-21T21:58:00.001+08:00

Sorry for ranting in the last post & no mum it's not Hashish it's tobacco mixed with dry fruit etc, apple's my fav :)

Ok have just loaded more of my Africa photos & I realised there were a few things I'd missed out of my last post.

1) When we went to the high dam when I got off the mini bus I managed to exit very gracefully, I was just wearing jandles (flipflops) & the tiles on the ground were kinda shiny - like you'd have on a bathroom wall... Anyway, one of my feet decided to go one way & the other decided to go the other - didn't know I could still do the splits! It was rather amusing but I kinda hurt my thumb & 4 days later its still sore, but its all good! :o)

2) I've lost my bikini bottoms!!! Well I really just wanted to say that I've swam in the Nile but when I put my bikini bottoms out to dry on the boat I couldn't find them later...

Last night, apart form the 9 hour over night train trip was great. Firstly I chilled out for a bit & got over my shitty mood :)

Moses brother was arranging a shisha pipe for me & we went to pick it up - 3 of us, Kate, Moses brother & me, squashed on the back of his motor bike & went for a ride to the shop through the streets of Luxor. It was classic! I ended up getting a decent pipe for 55le ($12au). Its pretty cool. The train trip last night was ok, bit of a experience walking up to the first class carriage at 2am to try & find a cleanish toilet :) Today I'm really, really tired. We got in about 7am & set off for a tour of the Cairo museum at 9am. I came back to the hotel about 12.30pm & crashed for a couple of hours. Gotta finish loading the photos. Tomorrow I think we set of for Mt Sinai.

x

Cairo - Egypt, Sunday 21st August 2004, 5.10pm

Still Pissed Off.

2004-08-20T19:58:00.000+08:00

As per the heading of my last post I'm very very pisssed off. Thing is even though I was sitting there for a hour typing away before the connection cut out they won't take any responsibility because they say it's their provider & that it's not their fault so I still have to pay…. But they'll let me use MS Word to type it up for free again. ARGHHHHHHHHH. I'm hot, tired, grumpy & now severely pissed off so it looks like I'm now going to write a crappy post. The thing that sucks the most is that I'd just hit the post button when the connection died, plus it was a really good post!

Once again here's another rushed version of what I've been up to with a slightly sour tinge to it because I'm in a crappy mood now.

I think I left off the afternoon before we headed to Aswan.

Sun 15/8 - That night a few of us, Kate, Nick, Carolyn, Helen, Aaron & I, headed out to the kings head for dinner then to Moses shop to hang out for a bit. (The contents of this in the last post was quite a chunky paragraph or 2 but I just don't have it in me now… L) Moses sells silver jewelry & which I've managed to spend quite a bit of money on as per most other people in our group. Anyway we smoked shisha which is really relaxing. Moses brother is going to buy me one of the pipes, they're pretty cool.

Mon 16/8 - Caught the early morning train to Aswan which only took 2 or 3 hours. It made me feel like I was traveling again which was cool. Maybe it could have been cause the train was dirty and there were rivulets of urine running down the isle… We did however stay at a 4.5 star hotel which was awesome, much swimming in the pool! That afternoon we went on a tour & went to the Aswan high & low dams. These dams generate all of the power for Egypt. The high dam project created Lake Nassa which is something like 300km long & goes into Sudan. After the dams we went to the Phile Temple. This temple was actually relocated because Lake Nassa covers its original site. They did a really good job of putting it back together.

Tue 17/8 - We had to wake up at 3am in order to beat the heat & the tourists to get to Abu Simbel. It was well worth it though because the temples were amazing. Some of the people in our group decided not to go & I think that they seriously need their heads read!!! At the entrance of the big temple there are 4 statues of Ramsies II which are over 30m high – Very impressive! Inside is also a sight to see. The smaller temple is pretty cool too. One day I'll get to down load the photos. I'm now getting grumpier & grumpier by the minute cause this dam computer keeps changing to Arabic & the side arrows go the wrong ways! That afternoon we went out to Kitcheners Island which is Aswan's botanical gardens in the middle of the Nile. It was really nice to be surrounded by greenery again. That night we went to a local family's house for dinner which was really cool.

Wed 18/8 & Thu 19/8 – Our first 9am start in quite some time which was really good. I enjoyed the sleep in! We set off down the Nile at 9 in the Felucca's. A Felucca is a basic sail boat. They pretty much have a deck with mattresses on them & a shade cloth thing, underneath the deck there is just enough room to fit your backpacks & that's about it. Toilet stops were at the side of the river – strange that it doesn’t faze me anymore, 2 girls decided not to come with us & stayed an extra day in Aswan, caught a train & met us this morning as they couldn't face the thought J. We pretty much just chilled out for 2 days & watched the world go by as we floated down the Nile. It's really cool & a little freaky to see this lush green vegetation & fields right next to the river the look over a little further & see desert. There were 9 of us on my Felucca & 2 other boats – one with 5 & another with 9 people. I didn't sleep to well the first night, last night was a little better but I'm still whacked.

Today, Fri 20/8 – I was woke up at 5am by the ore's next to my head squeaking, don't think there was enough wind for the sail… We left the Felucca's & went to Edfu temple. It's one of the only complete temples left. It's interesting that it looks like an Ancient Egyptian temple but our guide said that it was built in 3000bc which is the Roman period. It was really cool to see but Abu Simbel is still my pick.

We're now back in Luxor for the afternoon & tonight we're catching the night train back to Cairo where we leave most of the group. Out of 24 only 5 or are going on. We leave just after 9 tonight & think we get to Cairo about 6.30 tomorrow morning. I think that will make 3 nights with out a bed.

The title of the post I lost was "I really feel like I'm traveling again". It's been great to catch trains, busses & Felucca's, I really love it. I wrote a couple of paragraphs on this too but need to go get clean now & eat some food…

I'm really enjoying Egypt & this tour is great!!!!

x

Luxor – Egypt, Friday 20th August 2004, 3pm

Soooo Pissed off it's not even funny.

2004-08-20T18:54:00.000+08:00

I have just spent the last hour writing a huge post of what I've been up to for the last few days & the fucken internet connection just cut out. Needless to say I'm not going to sit here & type for another hour, I'm just going to go & fume for a little while then I'll get over it & at next chance will update again.

x

Luxor - Egypt, Friday 20th Aughst 2004, 1.52pm.

Highlights!

2004-08-16T08:11:00.000+08:00

I really want to write a full on post cause the last few days have been fantastic but I don't have enough time... :( So here are the highlights :)Oh, & yep mum it was the Karnak temple & Tanya I fully recommend the whole travel thing! :o)

Ok! I went snorkling in the RED SEA!!!! It was just like being in a giant aquarium - absolutely bloody amazing! The place beginning with 'H' was Hurghada. Back to Luxor yesterday & after eating food at a local restaurant, Kate, Helen (our tour leader), Nick & I all went to an Irish Pub where you have a choice of Stella, Stella, or Stella Artois beer - I made them go & buy me a bottle of vodka & we proceeded to get very drunk....

Then as we were walking back to the hotel we ended up at an Egyptian wedding... basically a big street party where every one wanted to dance with me - it was heaps of fun. The only thing that wasn't fun was when we left a lot of young boys (teenagers) decided it'd be fun to play touch the blond white girl - everywhere! They got a good few slaps & elbows :) don't worry Mum, not dangerous - the others protected me. Then another boy that wasn't with the group was walking with us & I was telling him how pissed off I was that they touched me, then he copped a feel & ran off! Little bastard! Oh, & at one stage Helen picked up one of the boys that was touching me & dumpped him to the ground & I went up to him & was like - "Don't touch me!" & I had to stop myself from laughing 'cause he looked so terrified.

After that little turn of events we came back to the hotel but weren't 'that' tired so went up to the roof, where I thought it would be a good idea to go for a swim - all I can say is thank god for matching bras & undies! :) After my swim we were back in the lift & Nick & Kate were "Let's get more beer" - so I piled my clothes on over my wet underwear & we went to the jewelery shop, where Moses helped us out on the beer front & had some other pendants & things ready for me. It was a classic night!!!! :)

Today we went to the valley of the kings & queens. EXCELLENT! Oh, & to Hatshepsut temple which was really cool, too.

Gotta go get changed for dinner! Catching the train to Aswan tomorrow.

Bye!

Luxor - Egypt, Sunday, 15 August 2004, 6.45pm

Last night was a blast!!!!

2004-08-12T17:25:00.000+08:00

I'm back on the net again, not cause there's nothing better to do but because it's just after mid day & soooo bloody hot outside it's not funny! At least it's kinda air-conditioned in here & I'm not sweating rivers anymore... Plus just had to write a quick post about last night :)

After rushing back to the hotel & having a shower, putting on make up & my contacts in & actually feeling quite human we had dinner on the roof top of the hotel looking out over the Nile. Then a few of the girls had brought some bracelets, rings & pendants earlier so I went with them to pick it up & of course ended up buying a necklace pendant... In my defence it's silver & has my name written in hieroglyphics & only cost 30ep ($6au) so not to bad. It was going to take a hour for them to write my name on it & by this time it was 10pm so we thought we might as well go for a bit of a walk. Just out side the shop a guy in one of the horse & carriage taxi's pulls up besides up & offers us a ride & the 4 of us (Nick, Kate, Amanda & I) are like no it's ok. Then he goes it's only 5ep ($1au) for 30min. So we thought 'why not' knowing full well he'd want more. Anyway he ended up driving us round for about a hour & took us through the local markets which open till about 12pm & to some of the craft shops & a pyrpius shop (where everything was half price cause we weren't on a tour!). We had such a cool time although to start with we were pretty sure our organs were going to be harvested! :) In saying that though the guy that's making our trip t-shirts (a local) was with us so we felt pretty safe. After we'd gone back & picked up my pendant Nick had run out of money so we all went for a walk to the ATM & on the way back there was a guy & he's like - You have 3 problems (meaning us 3 girls) & he's following us along the street saying I'll help you with your problems - it was so funny! so many things like that happened last night, it was classic!

I'm getting a lot more attention here than I have anywhere else but none of it's that bad. I was expecting so much worse! Basic rule is to cover up - if you show skin, you're asking for trouble. I've been walking round by myself & feel really safe.

This tour is so different to the one in Africa! I'm loving it that we get free time but also get to see everything.

Today - We set off at 8am & have spent the last 4 hours walking, firstly, around a temple beginning with 'K' (can't remember the name) & then the Luxor temple. They're amazing!!! This is the sort of stuff that I love, we had a guide for the first part then got to explore on our own. In about 30min we're heading off to somewhere beginning with 'H' - man I'm bad... I'll look at what we're doing & commit it to memory at some stage! It's going to be a 5 hour drive this afternoon - & very hot!

Well better go... xoxox

Luxor, Egypt - Thursday 12 August 2004, 12.45pm

It's HOT, HOT, HOT!

2004-08-11T23:09:00.000+08:00

Who the hell would go into the desert in the middle of summer...? Ummm, I think that would be the same person who went to Africa & didn't take binoculars :o) IT'S ALL GOOD!

There are 25 people on the tour with me so I'm not the only one who's stupid enough to have come to Egypt to brave the 48oC+ heat & that was only yesterday, it's only supposed to get hotter... See the plan is to lose the extra weight that I put on round the belly in Africa - I'll just get to sweat, sorry 'Glow', it off - no exercise needed. Sounds like a great plan to me! :)

The last few days have been great & I'm really enjoying the tour although for the first 2 nights (Sunday & Monday) we pretty much just put up tents in the desert & had no facilities, glad Africa prepared me for it, cause some of the others found it a bit hard. As per usual day by day account of what I've been up to (Just to bore the shit out of you. I've had no comments on the last few posts so figure I must be a tad boring!)

Saturday 7/8 - Went for a wander round the streets of Cairo near the hotel & brought about a $111au (500Ep) worth of art work. 7 works all up, on the traditional papyrus paper. We went to another gallery with the group & they were charging 500ep for 1 work!!! Plus he's going to send them home for me for free, too. Mum, in case I forget to tell you there's one in there for you, 1 for J & 1 for Claudia & Lyndon (Claudia could I get you to email me your new address so I can get mum to send it to you?). They have your names written on them in hieroglyphics. I also brought some perfume, essential oils, 7 x 70ml bottles for 500ep ($111au).
We had the pre departure meeting & I met the 12 new people joining this part of the trip, only one of them, Nick, is going all the way to Istanbul also. I think we'll pick up a few others along the way but think it's going to be a small group.

Sunday 8/8 - Giza, I SAW THE PYRAMIDS!!!! Oh, & the Sphinx. It was so surreal! You look at them from one view point & the desert sprawls out behind them, you turn around & there's the city. We went inside the smallest pyramid & I'd thought the walls would be covered with art work etc but there was nothing, it was just very, very hot. We then went down to the sphinx & had a look round the temple then had some lunch across the road, get this, at KFC :) I was sitting in KFC looking out the window at the sphinx & the pyramids...! After that we went to a perfume shop & they were charging double what I got my perfumes (oils) for. After that we went to the papyrus gallery then drove for a few hours into the desert. It's so amazing, there is nothing at all except sand & rocks, pretty cool.

Monday 9/8 - Spent most of the day on the truck but stopped off for a couple of hours at an Oasis with a hot spring. Me thinking that it couldn't be that hot put my feet in & I swear I just about got 3rd degree burns! No one could brave it! It was nice having a couple of hours off the truck to break up the trip but it was so dam hot! We arrived at the white desert about 5. The reason it's called the white desert is cause there's these rocks that have been blasted by the sand & wind & they're white - they look pretty cool.

Tuesday 10/8 - now I know why mirages are called mirages. As we were driving through the desert yesterday you'd see what you'd swear was water but it was just the water reflecting off the sand/rocks - pretty amazing. We stopped off at an artist's gallery which was pretty cool, don't have his name with me at the mo so when I do will jot it down. After that about 1 hour more of a drive & we arrived at another oasis, this time with a cold spring!!! It was fantastic, although the bottom of it was a little mushy & it smelled a bit but hell it was 48 oC, I didn't care! :)
We stayed in a place called El Kazar last night & slept on a roof top which was cool. I forgot to mention that the stars here are awesome! Where we stayed prepared us a traditional meal & it was really nice.

Wednesday 11/8 - Pretty much spent today driving to Luxor, where I am now. We're staying in a hotel!!!! That has air con!!!!!!! And a decent BED!!!! I am excited beyond belief!

Well that's the basics, let me know what you're up to!!! :o) xoxo

Luxor, EGYPT!! - Wednesday, 11 August, 2004, 6.45pm

Photos

2004-08-07T19:33:00.000+08:00

Just posted 14 odd photos of Kruger & Chobe National parks.

Oh & I had a record amount of sleep yesterday - I nodded off about 4.30 yesterday afternoon woke up about 9pm then went back to sleep about 9.30pm then woke up again at 9 this morning! Must have neded it, it was so nice having a room to myself too!

Cairo - Egypt, Saturday, 7th August, 2.30pm

I'M IN EGYPT!!!!!

2004-08-06T20:25:00.000+08:00

I've very, very bloody excited to be here! I got here about 3 hours ago & are just trying to fill in some time. I knew there was a reason I hated staying in Hotels - you don't meet anyone! So I thought I'd come to the internet cafe cause travelers are usually in them by the hand full but alas - not this one. No big deal. I've got the pre-departure meeting for my middle east tour tomorrow night then we set off the next day.

The last few days have been pretty cool.

Wed 4/8 - My room mate Catherine, who's actually from Nairobi & has just split form her husband, said that she'd take me for a drink. We went to a bar that played some pretty cool music & I met a few of her friends which was great. After the bar we went to a club that played only Kenya music, it was fantastic!!! We had such a great night! I felt a tad self conscious though, I was the only white person in the first place we went to & 1 of 2 or 3 at the club, I felt like the white girl with no rhythm, hehehe. I was also proposed to 4 times which was interesting, one guy was like "I need a wife to help me with my business - I have 10 cars" & I'm like "that's cool but I don't want another husband!" :)

Thursday 5/8 - Did a bit of a tour of Nairobi for a hour or so & spoke to my mum. It was so nice to hear her voice! Got a tad homesick & wanted to have a cry but snapped out of it :) I didn't do much read a book then at 8pm Cathrine gave me a lift to the airport. My flight left at 12.42am.

Friday 6/8 - I'M IN EGYPT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've only really just been driven through Cairo on the way to the city but I'm liking it already & oh, oh, oh... I saw the Nile river! Yeah, it doesn't take much to get me excited.

Well going to go get some food. My body is all funky cause I haven't slept & was pretty much traveling for 14hours including connecting flights etc.

Cairo - Egypt, Friday, 6th August, 2004, 3.33pm

More catching up!

2004-08-04T17:42:00.000+08:00

Technology! - Yesterday was the worst internet connection I've ever experienced!!! It was so slow it couldn't even keep yahoo messenger open! I've found a decent place today so hopefully I'll be able to catch up from where I left off... Oh but before I do I haven't been able to find a photo shop that is able to down load my last 2 memory cards so only photos of the first week in Africa... & the quality is really bad for some reason...

Rest of Day 10, Sat 10/7 - After our stop in Livingston we went to the campsite, set up tents & had lunch. The booz cruise was at 4pm so I had a bit of a lie down in order to try & recuperate for the cruise. The cruise was great, when I got on I was a little relieved cause there seemed to be a few kids & families on the cruise meaning maybe it wouldn't be that much of a piss up... I was wrong - it was free alcohol after all! Before I get in to that though we met the rest of our group at lunch, they'd been staying on the Zambia side at the campsite cause it costs $55us to get into Zimbabwe. They seemed like a pretty together bunch & had decided not to come on the cruise because they's already done one before they split up with their last group. Anyway I was a tad worried with the whole 2 groups mixing together but we seem to be doing ok now. Back to the Booz cruise. After I'd had a few drinks I found out that the bar was only serving doubles... So needless to say I'm a light weight so after 2 drinks (4 shots I was already well on my way). The sunset was lovely & we say some Hippos. The Zambezi river is beautiful. We had a dinner of chicken & salad which was really nice & then proceeded to get very very drunk. Contests to see who could down their drinks first are not a very good idea btw... Towards the end of the cruise the crew started dancing & started to teach me some of the African moves - it was so much fun! Then the cruise was over & we made our way to the campsite bar where I proceeded to do cartwheels (as I usually do when I'm drunk for some reason...) with a slight difference though, I feel over & landed on my ass - first time that's happened! I should have taken it as a sigh but then someone brought us all banana & baileys shots... That was it for me. I had my first drunken throwing up experience. I don't even know how many times I threw up but had Tosca, Lil & Clare all looking after me. It wasn't even that bad :) Lets not forget that by this time it was only 7.30pm... I can just see mum shaking her head as she reads this, honest mum, I am sensible!... mast of the time anyway ;o)
Clare & Lil walked me back to the tent where I had the best sleep & woke up about 11m & successfully made it to the loo which was half way across the campsite. Luckily when I woke up the next day, at 5.30am, I didn't feel too bad, at least not as bad as the previous day anyway...

Day 11, Sun 11/7 - I slept most of the day on the truck. We left at 7.30am but I did notice the change in scenery. The trees were really beautiful. I think we spent most of the day on the truck apart from lunch, we did a stop at Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) It was a shame though cause everything was closed cause it was Sunday. We stayed at Pioneers camp just out of the city & unfortunately it was another cold shower. Something you just get used to I suppose. One of the ladies that hadn't had a cold shower before decided to give it a go & the screams you heard coming form her cubicle, you'd think she was been tortured :o) We had the biggest fire that night. The guys found a dead tree trunk which was pretty much the basis of the fire. When we woke up the next morning the fire was still going. Even though the night before Mark had tried to smother it by using a shovel to put dirt over the coals - didn't work so the settled for digging a moat around it.
Day 12, Mon 12/7 - We were still traveling through Zambia & in case you haven't figured it out we spend a lot of time on the truck, Frankie, about 10hours that day. It was really cool at the lunch stop that day, which is always just on the side of the road cause the truck has EVERYTHING we need. We ended up pulling over near a little village, anyway as always there was some food left over so we asked the lady at the village if she wanted it & had something to put it in, which she did. I'd brought a few pens at vic falls to give away, as they really need pens here, so asked Tosca to give them to her. Tosca told me to go with her & I got to speak to the lady & play with her 18mth old baby & see a bit of where they live which was pretty cool. There were a group of young boys around too & I asked them if I could take their photo & they didn't mind so now I have a few cool photos. (ED. I forgot to mention that Karla threw up at the back of the truck. 1 seat behind me. Thank god it didn't smell. Just heat stroke we think. Although she did expect us to clean it up - NOT BLOODY LIKELY!). We made it to Chipata then went to the campsite Mamma Rulas. Part of my shower was actually hot before it ran out that is. I thought I was in heaven to start with. That night we ate at the campsite bar. It was quite a novel to be able to see what I was eating, with real lights & a table.

Day 13, Tue 13/7 - We were up at 5.15am for a 6.30 departure, Tosca was testing us to see if we could get the tents packed, truck packed, dressed & breakfast thing down to a fine art. This was also one of our biggest days on the truck so we also had to pack our lunches. It didn't take us that long to reach the Malawi border. We were all freaking out a bit because the Italian honeymoon couple hadn't checked to see what visas they'd need. Adrianina was fine cause she was on a Canadian passport but Marco wasn't & Italians need to get a visa which can't be bought at the border... So we had to try & sneak him through. As it turned out it was no big deal & he got a stamp in his passport & we all had a huge sigh of relief. More driving then we stopped at Lilongwi (capital of Malawi). I changed $10us for $1060 Malawi Kwacha then got very excited cause I got to use the internet again. In the carpark I bought another painting. He originally wanted $45us but I ended up getting it for $10us - go my bartering skills! Sometimes I can't be bothered bartering, at other times it really is worth it. Once everyone arrived back to the truck we set off for Kande Beach. We arrived here about 4pm & did the usual set up. Its so beautiful here. It's hard to believe it's winter though.
The stars were amazing last night, I don't know how I managed it but I was up till 11pm last night & I didn't sleep on the truck yesterday like I usually do either...

Day 14, Wed 14/7 - I've spend today lying on the beach, helping get lunch ready, playing cards & now at 4pm I'm lying on the beach. Once again It's hard to believe its winter. I've been in my bikini & sarong all day! not sure what's happening tonight, people are talking about drinking... Not sure if I can be bothered but I'll see how I go :o) Oh also forgot to mention, it was the first chance I had today to sleep in, but do you think I could - NO, I woke up at 5 am! but refused to get out of bed till 7am :o)

End of post - written on Wed 14/07/04, Kande Beach, Malawi, Africa

Next post Thursday 22nd July 2004, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania

I'm loving this whole lying on the beach thing. We still have another 2 days on the island & its absolutely amazing but before I go in to it I've got the whole week to catch up on.
- Still in Malawi & it was our Day 15, Thur 15
2nd day at Kande beach just to lie around & be lazy, however, the weather had different ideas. It wasn't exactly cold but it was really windy so the morning pretty much consisted of a group of us playing cards. In the afternoon we were taken for a walk through the village which was pretty cool. It was great to meet the locals & have a look around the village. It's the first time on the trip that I've felt like I've learnt something about the people & had some real interaction.

Day 16, Fri 16/7 - We had a pretty eventful day, firstly Frankie (our truck) lost a tyre then we came across a truck that had jack knifed across the road. SO after we waited 30min for all the boys to prove how strong they were & change the tyre we waited close to 3hrs for the jack knifed truck to be removed. It actually wasn't too bad. I still quite haven't figured out why the locals think it's quite amusing when they see us have our toilet stops. Usually its good & there's no locals around when Fort (our driver) stops but when they were changing the tyre I had to go so I wandered off in to the bush & the locals couldn't see me but they had a good laugh. Must be cause we carry toilet paper in to the bush with us...

Next post Tuesday 3rd August 2004, Nairobi, Kenya

I had to stop writing there for some reason & haven't actually updated my diary since. So it looks like I've got 18 days to catch up on! Not sure why I slacked off & aren't sure if I'll be able to remember but I might as well give it a go.

Rest of Day 16 - We made it to Chitimba beach which is still on lake Malawi before dark & did the usual set up. Then had a few drinks. Funny thing is that I only had a couple then I was dead to the world. I feel asleep on one of the sofas behind everyone else who were playing a drinking game. I think Big Ben carried me to my tent around 9.30 where I proceeded to sleep then they all continued drinking. Deanna & Lil took down their tents at about 1am (which were right next to mine & I slept through it. Their plan was to sleep on the nice comfortable sofa's instead of on the ground & they didn't want to pack up their tents in the morning.

Day 17, Sat 17/04 - We crossed the border into Tanzania & I'm having a bit of trouble remembering the crossing - I think it was the one with the really loud stamps, swear when they stamped your pass port you could feel the whole desk vibrate through you! Anyway, we stayed at a place called Kalonza Farm where they prepared a meal for us. It was amazing! 3 courses served to us in a traditional mud hut/house thing. The food was so fresh, lots of veggies which was great. I had a hot shower too, heaven! The stars were amazing there to.

Day 18, Sun 18/7 - We were up at 4.45an to drive to Dar Es Salam. I think it was up there with one of the longest days we'd spend on the truck. nothing really eventful... We stayed at a place called silver sands campsite. We also had the restaurant cook for us so no cooking or clean up duty :o)

Day 19, Mon 19/7 - We caught the ferry over to Zanzibar at 10.30am. Just before we boarded I need to use the loo & thus experienced my first squat toilet. The name is exactly what it suggests. I was suprised cause I'd when I thought of squats I imagined just a hole in the ground. Not a fully tiled cubicle with a porcelain oval shaped bowel set into the tiles/floor with a flush system & all. Very interesting me thinks. I've used a few more of them since & I'm still not the biggest fan. Anyway, the ferry took about 2hours & was pretty uneventful. Tosca is terrified of been on a boat so it was a traumatic experience for her. Zanzibar was amazing. The water's that lovely awua blue and the old buildings and the narrow streets were amazing. We stayed at the Karibu Inn for the first night. Once we checked in a few of us grabbed a taxi & went to see the slave caves. It was quite sombering going down into this cellar & looking at these tiny little rooms that up to 100 people were crammed into with only the floor for their waste and to think that they were in there for sometimes up to a week then sold if they managed to survive it. Also the fact that they didn't actually do anything to loose their freedom, just bad luck. After the caves Clare & I wondered around town a little & I brought a couple of paintings. Then we headed to Africa house to watch the sunset accompanied by a few cocktails (only 1 for me) & it came in a coconut shell which was pretty cool. After the sunset we made our way down to the fish markets which were also very very cool. Basically there was about 50-100 (not quite sure) stalls all along the waters edge all selling different types of fish, shell fish, crabs, lobsters etc. All of the food has been part cooked then laid out on the tables on newspaper (not very hygienic). You go up to the stall of your choice & pick out what you want then they finish cooking it for you. I spent less than $3us & got 1 skewer of odd fresh tuna, 1 skewer of shark (each had about 5 or 6 good size chunks) 1 lot of chips & a fried banana - I was stuffed! It was very much one of the highlights, just walking around with your plate of food eating with your fingers.

Day 20, Tue 20/7 - The majority of the group left for the north of the island at about 9am &amp; Clare, Big Ben (there were 2 big & little) & I decided to stay in town & explore Stonetown & the markets. Clare & I were quite glad to have Ben with us. A lot of the streets were narrow & dirty & it could have been very easy to get lost (not a good idea if you're a female by yourself). I felt quite comfortable & we didn't get hassled to much. After the markets I spent some time on the internet then we caught a 3pm mini bus up to the north of the island to join the rest of the group.. Where we stayed was quite good - 5 second walk to the beach & only 3 people per room, Plus we had a bathroom to ourselves which was very exciting :o) We also had a bathroom at Karibu Inn but there was 6 to a room - it was nice not to have to walk half way across a campsite. It took us about 1.5hrs to get there & the first thing we did was go down to the beach where we were set upon by women trying to sell things, massages & hair braiding. One of the women that came up to us was practically yelling & screaming at us. Supposedly Tosca & Deanna had told her that they had a blond friend who wanted to get her hair braided & she was saying that they had promised... There was no way I was letting her near my hair so I arranged to meet another lady at 9am the next day for good price, $35us.
That night we watched the sunset at happy hour from the bar. Clare & I left about a hour before the others, I wasn't up for a big night. We ended up talking for a bout a hour then heard a whole heap of noise - the others, who were very drunk, trying to be quite - quite funny in its self. We thought there was no way we were going to get to sleep so went &amp; joined them. Big Ben & Deanna have a running joke going with Little Ben & Steve. So it was a sealth mission to pile a whole heap of chairs out side Little Ben's & Steve's door so they couldn't get out of their room. It was hilarious!

Day 21, Wed 27/7 - As mentioned I went down to the beach at 9am to get my hair done. It took them 4hours!!!!! Not the most comfortable I've ever been, with 3 ladies pulling my hair this way & that. The end result was worth it though & they did a decent enough job. As we all know I'm a sucker for massages & one of the ladies who was platting my hair was like you need a massage to which I agreeded. Suprisingly enough she also gave massages, so for 10$us I got a 30 min full body work over which wasn't to bad. Just lots & lots of coconut butter which was really really hard to wash off. I went for a swim in the sea & the water was just perfect/ A few of us went over for happy hour then after dinner went to a 'disco'. The music wasn't bad but I'm still dying for a decent night out.

Day 22, Thur 22/7 - No one bothered to tell us that we had to check out of the rooms by 10am. We woke up at 9.30am & proceeded to pack, have breakfast & vacate our room by 10.15am. We dumped all of our gear in Todca's room then spent the day on the peach. We piled in to mini vans about 4.30 & went back to Stonetown & the Karibu Inn.

Day 23, Fri 23/7 - The morning started off well , waking up & going got the internet for a couple of hours. Then we met back at 12 to make it to the 1pm ferry which turned out to be the 1.30 ferry so we had to wait 30 min in the hot sun which wasn't really to bad. Then once on the ferry is where it all started to go down hill. Usually I'm really food with these things & I never get travel sick. This ferry ride was the closest I've ever been to throwing up! Imigian this, sitting in a seat on the ferry & having your butt actually loose contact with the seat every few seconds & getting tossed this way & that for 2 hours. I can tell you I was the so releivced when it was over! After a quick stop at the super market we headed back to Silver sands camping ground in Dar Es Salam. Back to the tents... It was cool though cause they had dinner for us in the restaurant again so we weren't quite back to roughing it.

Day 24, Sat 24/7 - Another early start,, 4.45am & another long day on the truck. Dar Es Salam to Arusha. We stayed at the Masai snake park. Must admit I was in a rather unsociable mood so after dinner went straight to bed.

Day 25, Sun 25/7 - Free day off the truck, YAY! Some of us went in to town with Fort & Tosca to do some shopping then just chilled out at the camp site. I brought 2 masai spears so I'm hoping that they get thorough customs (I've brought way to much stuff on this trip!) Oh & I finally got some washing done, its beyond me how people actually manage to get things really clean but hand washing them. I only ever to manage to get 1 layer of dirt off.

Day 26, Mon 26/7 - Nagorangora Crater. One of the big highlights. For the first time it felt like I was really in Africa. It look like the doco's that you see & it was pretty amazing. We left Arusha & made our way to the park gates where we were met by 4x4's . We split in to groups of 6 & were taken for a awesome game drive. We saw so many animals including lions! It was ashame that they were a fare distance away but impressive none the less. After the game drive we were taken out of the crater & back to the rim where we were to camp. Now, it's a little freaky when you're given the following advice - "if you need to get out of your tent at night unzip the tent, stick your head & flash light out & scan the area for eyes". Then "if you happen to be coming back form the toilet & run in to a LION don't run, just back away very slowly, if you run they'll think you're prey". Needless to say I didn't leave my tent :) Before I went to bed though we did spot some Zebra grazing on the other side of the road, not far form our tents.

Day 27 Sun 27/7- Serengitti, we left nagorangora crater & crossed into serengitti & did a bit of a game drive in the afternoon. After been in the 4x4's been back in Frankie didn't quite compare. Plus there were no where near as many animals. So it felt like it was a little bit of a let down. The camp was very baskc, only a block of long drop squat toilets & no running water. Once again no leaving tentsat night with out been super cautious. That night Tosca had put the bin in the truck but one of the guys took it back out again & forgot to put it back...

Day 28 Mon 28/7 - In the morning we had no bin... As it was still dark we couldn't go & look for it. Thankfully just before we left it started to get light & someone went in search of it & the bin came back. All be it with one side missing... The bin was only about 10m form our tent, glad I didn't hear anything dragging it off! We did a early morning game drive & saw a beautiful male lion walking along the road next to the truck, it was great. In the serengitti there are no toilets & after a couple of hours quite a few of us needed to go... Basic rule in a national park is DON'T GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE - but if you've gotta go you've gotta go... Boys at the front of the truck, girls at the back. Must admit dignity goes out the window a little :) We were all a little shocked when one of the guys (same one as with the bin) started to wonder off into te bush... We all proceeded to shout at him that for all he knew there could be lions in there... We made it out of the park bt 12pm & drove to the next campsite, temba beach hotel, in Masuma on the shores of lake Victoria.

Day 29, Thur 29/7 - Another border crossing, the last I have on this leg of the trip, in to Kenya. Everyone had to fill in a 2 page visa application but I got mine when I was in Oz so it was good not to have the hassle. We brought bananas for the locals who carried them round on their heads & got ripped off by some boys selling nuts. They charged us double the price - works out to 15c so no big deal :) This was the longest day on the truck (I seem to be saying that a lot but I swear it was). We were awake when it was dark & got to the campsite, camilian farm, just before it got dark. Everyone was going a little stir crazy on the truck. So as soon as things were set up & they'd had dinner proceeded to get very drunk. I believe that after I'd gone to bed one of the firls was doing the can-can & broke a floor board! It was a good night though& for some reason there was a box of dress up clothes that everyone tried out, I think the boys just wanted to cross dress. They also had a twister game painted on the floor which was rather amusing to watch drunk people play.

Day 30, Fri 30/7 - Headed for Navasha (really, really bad roads) & made it there about 1pm then went to Joy Asamsons (author of born free) old estate for High tea. I didn't really know anything about joy so it was interesting to go along, more so for the food though :) The estate was quite nice & there were monkeys in the trees that looked like they were wearing fringed jackets.

Day 31, Sat 31/7 - Mini vans came to pick us up to take us to the Masai Mara at about 8am. The roads were so bad! Some of the worst I've ever seen, & 4 months on the road I've seen quite a few! Instead of driving on the road & trying to avoid pot holes a lot of the time we'd drive next to the road on the dirt! About 30 or 40 min before we arrived at the permanent camp site (with BEDS!!!) we lost the muffler. Our driver stopped picked it up & chucked it in the boot & off we went. One of the other vans had a flat tyre 10min into the trip, fun was had by all :) Before going to the camp we stopped at a Masai village. It was interesting to see some of their culture all be it felt like it was catering solely for the tourist. We got to the camp site about 2.30, had lunch then went on a game drive. The Masai Mara was AWESOME! at the moment it's migration time & we say hundreds / thousands of wilderbeasts not to mention every other sort of animal - even a LEPOARD! It was in a tree but it was cool. We spent a bit to long in the park so the driver was driving like a manic to try & get out of the park before night fall (not that we did). I swear that we missed a wilderbeast & zebra buy inches as we were flying down the road. Everyone pretty much just went to bed after dinner.

Day 32, Sun 1/8 - LAST DAY OF TOUR. For the first time since the tour started we had to wake ourselves up. Some people weren't quite sure how to deal with this but I used it to my advantage & managed to stay in bed (a proper bed!) till the last possible second - it was soooo nice. The game drive left at 7am & we got off to a bad start. Our drive forgot our tickets so we missed out on 20min in the park... It was a really good morning & some of the highlights were been really close to a elephant that trumpted, watching a pack of vultures go to work on a wilderbeast & just the share number of the many herds of wilderbeasts, it was pretty cool. We left the park about 12pm & thought we'd be meeting up with everyone for lunch as we had the food with us. but no. We stopped for about 20min at a service station & they still didn't come. So we set off, leaving the food for them at the servo. We got to Nairobi about 5pm. The rest didn't arrive till a hour after us. I was just a tad pissed off that we'd missed off on a hour & 40min of viewing but was ok with it till they started going on abut the lions they say.... Then I ust got grumpy. I think it was a combination of to many days on the truck, missing out on the viewing, not eating lunch (cause they forgot I couldn't eat bread... I had 3 bananas though) & waiting for them for over a hour. Plus we had to say good by to a heap of people. I think it was the worst mood I've been in for over the last 4 months. And that was that.

I'm in Nairobi now & stayed 2 nights at the NPS campsite & are now at the youth hostel. Need to go cause its getting dark & its taken me the best part of the day to write this up!

Next - The middle east.

Take care & keep in touch.

Wednesday 4/8/2004 6.39pm Nairobi Kenya

IT'S FINISHED!!!

2004-08-02T17:49:00.000+08:00

It was the last official day of tour yesterday & in a strange way I'm very relieved & a tad excited about moving on to the middle east. It's going to take me forever to catch up on everything that we've crammed into the last few weeks, plus I don't have my diary with me so I thought I'd just write a super quick post to let you know what I'm up to now. I haven't really had much of a chance to respond to emails, SORRY!!! Will try to if I've got time once I've finished writing this.

I'm now in Nairobi, Kenya. Even though yesterday was the last day of tour the majority of us stayed at the campsite with the tour leaders. A lot of people fly out today then some of us are staying on tonight. I fly out to Cairo in the early morning of the 6th (like 1am - yay me!) so are thinking that I'll stay at the campsite tonight then book in to the youth hostel for 2 nights so I'm a bit closer to town & not by myself at the camp site plus I'm dying to meet some new people! :o)
I think that covers the basics.

I was in the centre of Nairobi today & on all accounts it no where near as scary as its made out to be. I've been in worse places so I'm feeling a bit more secure now.

Highlights of the last few weeks - Nogorangoro Crator, Serengetti & Masai Mara national parks - absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nairobi - Kenya, Monday, 2nd August, 2004, 1pm

Follow on form the "I hate not being independent" post

2004-07-23T14:39:00.000+08:00

Day 6, Tue 6/7 - We had another late start & left camp about 8.30am & it took us about a hour to get to the Zimbabwe border. I was so buzzed, New Zealanders didn't have to pay the $35us that the aussies have to pay or if you're from the UK it's $55us. I was very, very, very happy!!! We arrived at Savanna Lodge about 11ish I think. No tents for 4 days!    We had a presentation of all the activities available for tourists, they all ranged form between $85us - $100us, it's just too much & nothing really appealed so I gave it a  miss. After lunch we (Lilly, Tom, Claire, Alex & I) went for a walk into town. Alex wanted to get her hair braided but they didn't have blond extensions so Claire got hers done (which looks so good, I'm jealous, I really wish I could get mine done!). Lilly, Tom & I went to the bank & I freaked out. I took out $400,000 zim dollars ($70ish us) & I got this huge wad of money.  They gave it to me in $10,000 notes. After I stashed the wad of money in the leg pocket of my shorts I was tad paranoid but it was cool, I didn't get robbed :o)    After the bank we went to the internet then to the markets. Most of the stuff that they sell are bowls & carvings that are a) quite big or b) too heavy. Nothing really jumped out at me so I only brought a carved necklace pendant thing for about $200,000zim dollars ? ($5ish au - way too much). Lil & Tom brought this wooden hippo which was crafted beautifully out of wood & a bowl. After the craft market we came back & got changed & had a few drinks (which are incredibly cheap here). Tosca arranged for us to be picked up by Mercure hotel to go to their restaurant for dinner. They had these really cool African dancers that then sang while we were eating. It was a garden buffet which was really nice & the food was really good. I tried wart hog steak which was absolutely wonderful, I even went back for seconds & I also tried the kudu which was nice too. We came back to the hostel & proceeded to drink more, I think everyone else bailed about midnight but Tosca & I managed to keep going till about 2am. The first decent night I've had since I've been in Africa :o) Considering most other nights we've been heading for bed about 8pm...   My pen ran out so I didn't write anymore this day.

New Post - Friday 9th July

It turns out we're staying an extra night in Vic Falls. So at present I'm sitting/lying in the garden listening to my CD's on the loudest volume with the sun shining down on me & are loving it. I think I'm the most relaxed that I've been in ages. Thought I should at least try to keep up to date when I don't really have anything else to do :o)

day 7, Wed 7/7 - Was planning on having a sleep in but got woken up by sweeping outside our room at 6.45am, not a happy camper! Everyone else had to get up anyway to do their activities & I had to get up to cancel mine. I really needed the day to my self, being around other people, constantly, for 6 days was taking its toll. Plus it was $100us for the activity - at least 5 nights accommodation! Yep, I've turned into a tight ass backpacker :) Well, not true, if there was something that I really wanted to do I would have done it but white water rafting has never really appealed, I've already bungie jumped & been in a couple of helicopters, I was tempted by the elephant walk but that was $85us for 2 hours... So I ended up spending $60us on a one hour massage & a one hour facial - money well spent!! I so love my massages & my skin was shocking (way to much icecream in Argentina).   After my afternoon of being pampered we had a few drinks at the hostel bar (they were out of juice (guava & vodka is wonderful!) so Claire & I had shots of vodka... A group of us, Tosca, Karen, Claire, Tom, Lilly & I went to the Spur restaurant where I paid $5,000 zim for a T-bone steak (just over $10au). It was only the 5 of us cause the Cape Town part of our tour was on a booze cruise. We were supposed to meet up with all of them at the casino but only 4 of them turned up so we had one drink at a really expensive bar, $12,000zim ($2.50us) then moved on to the explorer bar.  Drinks were a bit cheaper at $8,500 but still not as cheap as at the hotel $5,500zim ($1us). We had a really good night but I tell ya what, my legs are killing me today - way too much dancing.

Day 8, Thur 8/7 - I had a pretty lazy morning & just mucked around. Claire, Tom & Lilly came back from their helicopter flight & Tom, Lilly & I went for a walk to the supermarket where I managed to feed myself for lunch & dinner for next to nothing. Then we came back to say bye to the lot going to Capetown which was a bit sad. We then set off for Vic Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - does anyone know what all 7 are? We've got Vic Falls, Angel falls, the great barrier reef, Uluru(?), The grand canyon, but are a bit stuck with the rest.
Vic Falls were pretty cool, quite different to Igazu. I expected them to be prettier but they're not really. I think the thing that sets them apart is just the amount of water that rushes through & the depth. It is amazing. Over 93m that the water drops. You get completely soaked from the spray & can't even see the bottom.
I was quite tired after the falls so pretty much just ate (my supermarket bargains) then headed to bed.

Day 9, Fri 9/7 - that's today :o) I'm up to date. Like I said before, I'm lying in the garden being very antisocial & listening to music. Today we mucked around & didn't do much. After going thorough my pack to see what I could get rid of we went into town. I've now got 6 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts & about 12 tops... ummm, to much ! So I'm going to get rid of a few tops, problem is I like all of my pants... Anyway, we checked the internet then went to the bank, I didn't have quite enough zim so gave Tom & Lilly $4us for $20,000 zim.
We managed to find somewhere to down load our memory cards for $7.50us which wasn't too bad then we went to the supermarket to buy essentials, like vodka :) oh, & some food. Think it's the cheapest bottle of vodka I've brought yet. $12,600zim ($2au approx). At the check out though, Claire fainted which was a bit scary. She was first at the check out, then me, then Tom & Lil. Lilly looked at Claire & was like are you ok? She didn't look too great so I opened her fanta & gave it to her but she couldn't get it to her mouth so I helped, then she fainted. I grabbed her & so did Tom so she didn't fall. She wasn't out for long. We then pumped food & drink in to her & now she's having a lie down. She hasn't been drinking enough but she's ok now .

Well the sun's gone away so I'm going to go put some more clothes on & figure out what we're doing tonight.     Savanna Lodge, Vic Falls - Friday 9th July 2004 4.20pm

New Post - Wednesday 14th July

Everyone's getting sick & I'm scared stiff that I'll be next... We picked up the other half of our group a few days ago & half of them had what we thought was food poisoning - well that was until half of our original group started dropping like flys, yesterday.   It's quite bad too cause it's not exactly easy going on the truck so we had Karen throwing up in to the rubbish bin at the front & we couldn't stop because we were going through an unsafe area.   John & Claire weren't feeling great & they were both going all of last night - both ends - poor things. I've lasted 3.5 months with out getting sick all through South America so I'll be pissed off if I get a bug now . We have 2 days off the truck here at Kande Beach (which is beautiful BTW) so hopefully that'll give everyone enough time to get over whatever it is without infecting me. Really, I am such a caring person - I just don't want to get sick! Claire & I share a tent & I've been looking after her just praying he doesn't pass it on to me. At the moment I'm lying on the beach & its not even 10am, it's gonna be a scorcher. The lake here is beautiful. I love lakes though so I'm a bit biased, nothing beats Lake Taupo at home though (NZ).

Ok, catch up time again:

Rest of day 9, Fri 9/7 - We had a buffet dinner provided at the hostel & once again I proceeded to eat too much (I think I'm putting on weight...). Then no one really felt like going out so we had what started out as a few drinks at the hostel bar in order to get rid of out last zim dollars. Then Tom brought out their bottle of Gin & Vodka. By the end of the night I'd had a few Fin & coke's , which usually I think is one of the most disgusting things in the world.   Problem is Vodka & Guava juice is so easy to drink. I felt so bad the next day & the thought of any more alcohol didn't do anything for me but the booze cruise was that night... more on that later...

Day 10, Sat 10 /7 - We left Vic Falls about 10.30am, I managed to drag myself out of bed & pack but really did feel like crap. It didn't take us that long to get to the Zambia border & then I think I proceeded to sleep most of the way to Livingston where we stopped about 12ish. I brought a really cool painting for $10us. This sounds bad & I shouldn't laugh about it but it is funny so I'll share. Before I had a look at the little market where I brought the painting, most of us needed to use the loo. When we finally found one it was the public block that you'd usually find in a park or what ever. Anyway, the first ones to go in were Tom & Lisa (Lisa is Karen's friend who joined us at Vic Falls). All we heard was gagging -what sounded like someone throwing up. We thought it must have been Tom cause it was so loud, but out comes Lisa still reaching. We thought the loos must have been really bad (even when they are good here they are still not so nice). I really needed to go so thought I'd brave it &, well, they were fine, well not clean but not the worst I've been in either. We're awful - Claire & I couldn't help having a laugh.   Its funny what you get used to in a scary kinda way.   To be continued....

I've still got heaps to catch up on, it'll probably have to wait for a few weeks now, more than likely to the end of this tour...

Sorry I haven't posted photos! I'm not allowed to put my CD in the PC's here :o(

Stonetown, Zanzibar - Tanzania, Friday 23rd July 2004, 11.10am

I have Braids!!!!

2004-07-21T22:00:00.000+08:00

This is very exciting news.

I don't have time to post cause I have to make it to happy hour :o) $3us cocktails.

It took 4 hours for 3 women to braid my hair on the beach & it only cost me $35us. They had to use 4 packets of the hair extensions but it looks mad & my hari (or fake hair) comes half way down my back, it just feels heavy. The colour match looks pretty good too.

Have to go :o(

North Beach, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Wednesday 21th July 2004, 5.10pm

I HATE not been independent!

2004-07-20T18:53:00.000+08:00

I have approximatly 30 minutes left on the internet before someone is going to yell at me that we have to go. Ok that's not true (today anyway), its not that bad but still I hate not been able to do what I want when I want!

Currently I'm in Zanzibar Island, 2hours ferry ride from Dar Es Salem (Tanzania), its great cause we've all split up & its not this huge group of 22 tourists so it feels a little more real agian. Only problem is that it's not safe, as a female, to walk the streets alone. I didn't realise that Eastern Africa is predomiantly muslum. Tosca said that there was a report of a female tourist been raped here, basically they look at western women as tramps (for want of a better word) because we bare so much flesh etc. At present its pretty dam hot & I'm wearing a long sleave top & 3/4 length pants but its all good. In a hour or so I'm catching a taxi up to the north of the island where I plan to do much lying in the sun & have my hair braided with blond extensions, I can't tell you how dam excited I am. I've come so close to cutting my hair off but have settled thus far for whearing my bandana constantly. Braids will be a nice change & will be so easy to look after!

Anyway I have a bout 14 A5 pages of writing that I need to catch up on but don't think I'll have a hope in hell of getting anywhere near finished. Before I get started sorry for not responding to all my emails. I HATE not been able to check my email every couple of days then I get this huge back log & don't get to respond. SORRY!!!

Thursday 8th July 2004, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
This whoule not been able to go online every few days to catch up sucks... I spose if I was by myself I could make the effort to find PC's but I'm here for the experiance not to just write about it I spose :o)
To start with I was really worried about the whole side effects of the anti malaria tablets I'm taking but really, I've had no problems. If anything, instead of getting sun burnt I'm tanning heaps faster which is cool!!! I'm still been careful though. (Edit 20/7: my nose is red & I look like a raindeer now! Tosca said it happens to most people on Doxy no matter how much sunscreen they put on.).

Day 4, Sun 4/7: We pretty much just spent all day in the truck & did a border crossing in to botswanna. Really, it was a pretty uneventful day, except for one of the toilet stops. I've never felt the same vibe before or that fact felt in such a minority. We stayed in a place called Nata Lodge which was pretty flas, of course we were in the camping section so didn't get 'all' the comforts but the toilets & showers were really nice. There were also bush babies in the trees. They are these tiny things with huge eyes. Very cute. It was another early night.

Day 5, Mon 5/7: We got to sleep in !!!! didn't have to get up till about 7am. But of course I had to wake up before that, trust me not to get to enjoy a sleep in. It didn't actually take us that long to get to Kasani, we got there about 11.30am then proceeded to wait at the bank for 2 hours in order to change some money to $US. I honestly can't beleive how long it took them! A little frustrationg to say the least. After that we went to the camp site & had lunch then set up our tents before going on a game cruise. We stayed at chobe safari lodge. The game cruise was awsome!!! I had such a fantastic time. We got such a good view of a huge herd of elephants, which had a tiny, tiny, tiny baby, & heaps of hippos then there were crocks, monkies & a whole host of other things to. I really ejoyed it! Oh, also forgot to mention that there were actually monkies at our campsite too. It was pretty cool!

Day 6, Tue 6/7: We had another lat start & left camp about 8.30am... ok have to finish now or won't get to publish this. Have been told we'll have internet at north beach so will try & finish writing then so check for the rest of this post in the next few days.

Keep in touch, k?!! Miss you all heaps!

Stonetown, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, Africa, Tuesday 20th July 2004, 2.25pm

I'm in Africa (Part 2)

2004-07-07T17:42:00.000+08:00

Tue 29/06 cont'd... I made it back to the hostel just in time for the pre departure meeting. It's really cool to be able to go "ok, you do all the thinking now". It's amazing , you really don't realise the pressure quite so much when you're in the middle of everything but as soon as you relinquish it the weight just flies off your shoulders. I had a really early night, think I was in bed by 8pm. I was so tired. To many late nights in Lisbon & not enough sleep on the plane. Three continents in 5 days.

Day 1 on Safari, Wed 1/07 - After handing over our money & filling in the insurance details we set off about 9am, it was pretty much just a full day of driving. We were heading to wards Kruger National Park & stayed at Gekos Bushpackers just outside of a town called Hazy View. We were about 15kms form the park. We slept our first night in tents, they're a decent size which is good & there are only 2 people to a tent which isn't bad. I slept really well :)

Day 2 on Safari, Thur 2/07 - Up at 5am (that's always fun) in order to leave for Kruger by 6am. We got there as the gates opened & stayed there all day, don't think we left till after 5pm. It was really cool & we saw so many animals. First thing we saw were Giraffes & Zebras then Elephants, it was soo cool & everyone was really excited. We saw so many different things, no lions though :( One of the ladies, Karen, managed to find a tick off list of all the animals at the park at one of the guests shops. SO here's a list of the animals we saw (not in any order) Vervet Monkey, banded mongoose, spotted hyaena, African elephant, white rhino (although it was been eaten by the hyaenas & vaulters at the time & I didn't see it that well), Burchell's zebras, Hippos, Blue wilderbeast, lots of Impala (McDonald's of the bush), Kudu, Vultures plus heaps of other birds & I briefly saw a warthog that no one else saw.
It was a pretty long day & you'd go 30min or longer with out seeing anything but constantly been on the look out. Oh & btw who goes to Africa to go on safari & doesn't take binoculars with them? Ummm, that would be me, good one huh! I didn't really prepare for this trip quite so well but its all good. I have malaria tablets, insect repellent & sunglasses. FANTASTIC! Plus I just steel everyone else's :o)

Day 3, Fri 3/07 - It's only 7.20am so nothing as yet.

Oh & the moon here seems huge! Hope I get to take a photo of it, it's amazing! Oops, didn't even write about the people on the tour. Our tour leader Toska is awesome & I can't believe ho many hours our truck driver ford spends behind the wheel. There are 4 couples & 4 of us girls traveling by ourselves. One of the couples, Jason & Megan are form Oz & Lilly is form Adelaide, everyone else is form the UK. Jason & Megan, Alex & Jason, Lee & Louise, Thomas & Lilly, Niki, Claire, Karen & Me. 12 in total. It's going to take us about a week in total to get to vic falls then most of the group is going to cape town & Tom, Lilly, Karen, Claire & I are going to Nairobi, another 16 more people are joining us at Vic Falls. So far it's a bit different than the tour I did in OZ, we all just seemed to click instantly on that tour & we all keep in touch but this tour seems a little different. Spose it's cause there's so many couples...

Ok, that's as far as I've written today's the 7th so I've still got 4 days to catch up on... but need to get going...

Today everyone's doing activities & I decided that nothing really appealed & that I could really use some time to myself. So I'm spending the day chilling out & loving it. I so got used to doing my own thing in South America & just the last day or so I've felt a bit locked in. In a minute I'm going to go in search of a massage then spend the afternoon lying in the sun in a hammock reading a book :)

Oh & mum, (emails so slow!) When is Karen going to be in Morocco? I'm thinking of changing plan's & cutting out Spain & France & going there at the end of August instead. Have talked to heaps of people & I think its safe enough even if I were to go by myself. Europe is way to expensive & I think it'd be better to travel there once I'm earning the pound. I've just emailed my travel agent to find out if it's do able.

Ok, gotta go, Love & kisses!

Wednesday, 7th July 2004, Vic Falls, Zimbabwe, Africa, 12.08pm

I'm in Africa (part 1)

2004-07-06T21:19:00.000+08:00

WARNING: Haven't been able to run spell check... We all know that I'm a shocking speller plus I've been typing really fast... (7/7/04 - just did a quick proof read & my spelling was shocking!)

I'm having withdrawals form the internet!!!! It's been over a week since I've been able to find a connection. Don't know why but I thought that Africa would have similar facilities to that of South America but they don't... I got all your emails but its just taken me 40min to look at a few of them (it would usually take me 5 or 10min, internet is really slow here). So hopefully I'll get to respond at some stage soon. On Zanzibar island they are supposed to have good internet... think I get there in a week or so...?

So far I'm enjoying myself. Can see the benefits of doing a tour but I think I got kinda used to been on my own but still, I don't think that I would travel in Africa by myself.

Ok, what have I been up to... have been writing in my journal so have about 10min & will type up as much as I can :o)

Sat 3/07 - Hazy View, South Africa.
Day 3 of Safari - Its 6.30am & I've been up for a hour & a half. I'm sitting in Frankie (our truck) & we're leaving the campsite in order to move on to our next destination. Man, I'm about to see my second sun rise in as many days. How cool is that! Ok, quick catch up.

Tue 29/06 - I got to the airport really easily but had to wait about 15-20min at the bus stop in 30oC heat with my boots & pack on so needless to say it was just a little hot. The flight was pretty uneventful, well that is apart form the small child, make that medium sized child, who insisted on jumping up & down & making loud noises for most of the flight. Once again, my ear plugs were a life saver. I managed to get about 4 or 5 hours sleep which was great! I think the flight took about 13 hours & was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever taken. My butt hurt at the end of the trip, not a good thing - go TAP Air Portugal...

Wed 30/06 - I arrived at the airport about 8am expecting my transfer to the hostel to be there, but it wasn't. In order to make a call I had to take some money out of the ATM (at least this time I had a idea of the currency & didn't only take out $1au :p). The Rand is about R4.3is to $1au. After calling the hostel I had to wait a couple of hours to be picked up & met another girl, Niki, on my tour up till Vic Falls (where I am at the moment). We mad it to the hostel about 11.30am I think. I didn't get to see any of Jo'burg city (not very safe I've been told) the hostel was located in the northern suburbs. I went for a walk to the local mall & found a camping shop which had a self inflating sleeping mat (thank god!). It cost R499 (just over $110au I think). I also went to a supermarket to stock up on a few things & it was so cool that everything was in English! First time in just over 3 months that I've been to a supermarket where I can understand what all the ingredients were & not just look out for Trigo (wheat in Spanish). They even had cool things that I could eat :o) After that went back to the hostel & just about fell asleep then decided to go back to the mall & copy one of my memory cards on to CD.

Times just about up. Have to go will continue form here when I get the chance.

Love you all!!! xoxoxox

Tuesday 6th July 2004, Vic Falls, Zimbabwe, Africa

It's HOT!

2004-06-29T20:44:00.000+08:00

For the past few days its been about 32oC or in non technical terms, very bloody hot. As nice as it is I think I actually like the cooler weather but I don't have time to talk about the weather so here's a quick run down on what I've been up to.

Saturday 26/06 - I met Rebecca & Annette that were shearing the same room as me. They're form the north of England & here for the football - I've been told off for calling it soccer :) We went for dinner just of the main square with one of their friends (who's an Australian lad) then Becky was tired & went back to the hostel & Annette, Jordan & I headed out to Barrio Alto which is a awesome area with heaps of bars & restaurants. The streets were packed & it reminded me a little bit of Lapa in Rio but cleaner &... well, I can't really describe it, different. We were only going to go for one drink but that turned into several & we ended up leaving there about 3 or 4 ish I think... When we got back to the hostel it was thought to be a good idea to go somewhere else. We walked a few blocks to what we thought was a club but it turned out to be a brothel. It was so funny, Jordan said to the doormen, can we come in & the doorman is like, you can but they can't. It was rather amusing. After that we though we'd try the club across form the hostel, only thing been we weren't sure if it was a members club or not. We asked if we could go in & they let us through. The music was really cool & we had a good time. The reason we had thought it was a members club was cause we were the only lighter skinned people there. I think I got to sleep about 5am but 2 other girls in the room decided that it would be good to get up at 7am & be as noisy as they could & open & close the door as many times as they could while it took them 3 hours to pack & leave the room at 10am. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. In order not to waste the whole day I went with Becky & Annette to the Calousle Gulbenkian museum (its free on Sunday), they had some interesting stuff there, then we went & sat in the garden for a while. After going back to the hostel we went in to the main square & caught a tram up to St Georges Castle. It gives a great view of Lisbon & was pretty cool. I wasn't up for a night out so tried to get to bed at a reasonable time... Unfortunately I didn't sleep that well though.

Monday 28/06 - It was HOT, so we went to the beach. I actually think it was to hot for the beach but me been the sensible girl that I am I piled on the factor 30 sunscreen but managed to get a bit of colour anyway which is cool. The water was freezing though. It was so cool to lie on the beach & look around & go... I'm in Europe!
Didn't think I'd be up to going out last night, but well as always that changed. We were going to do the whole 'only one drink again thing' but decided that never works so set a time limit of 1am to leave... that apparently doesn't work either. We didn't do to badly & got back to the hostel about 3am. Cause Becky hadn't been to Barrio Alto we thought she should get to experience it. I was quite suprised cause there were quite a few people around for a Monday. It turned in to a really good night. I got taught a bit of, what I believe was, Samba form a Mexican guy which was fun too.

Tuesday 29/06 - I had to check out of the hostel at 10.30am. This sucks btw, if you're a hostel owner & read this, check out should be at least 12pm. I can usually pack in about 15min. I don't have 'that' much stuff & know where everything should go in my pack etc but I'm sure it took me over 45min this morning. I had to keep unpacking cause I'd forget to put something in. So I checked out a little later than anticipated :)
Which brings me to my next subject which I'm fairly pissed off about. I need US dollars for the kitti for my African trip so I went to the bank near the hostel & they said to go to a cambio. Cool, did that & said to the guy that I needed US travelers cheques change to US dollars & he was like ok. Anyway after I'd signed all the checks he goes, ok that's $350us & I'm like NO its $750us one of the cheques is $500us & he like checked it a million times & goes ok. So that's all good. Then he brings me the receipt & is like you'll get 600euros & I'm like - I don't want euros, you said when I asked that I could get US dollars. Then he's like oh if I give you US dollars you won't get the full dollar amount etc so pretty much I took the euros (cause the travelers checks had been signed & they charged me a huge commission so I was pretty annoyed. Basically I'm going to loose about $50us cause I'll need to change it back to $us. Doesn't matter really, just a tad annoying. Then I'd been given these 4 of these 1.50euro phone cards for free so decided to see if I could call Australia with them. I called my mum :o) It was so cool to hear her voice, don't think I've talked to her since Peru (we catch up all the time on yahoo messenger but its not quite the same).

Well I need to go now cause I've got a few more things to do then I have to catch a bus to the airport. Think I'm upto date now. The flight to Johannesburg is 15hours. Will try to update there but I'll see how I go. Africa, HERE I COME! :o)

Lisbon - Portugal, Saturday 26th June 2004, 1.40pm

This is going to be a real quick 'catch-up' on my last days in South America

2004-06-28T02:29:00.000+08:00

Partly written Thursday 24 June 2004 Buenos Aries Airport - Argentina

Well I think its been ages since I've updated so I thought while I'm still in the country I better write down what I've been upto over the last few days.

First & foremost I've been relaxing & enjoying been able to chill out. Its been great eating proper meals, sleeping in, been lazy & watching TV :o)

I think that I needed the break before embarking on the next part of my trip. I figured that for the next 3 or 4 months its going to be pretty full on traveling.

Anyway the last week or so, I can't remember when I last updated... They've just called boarding for my flight so have to go...

Ok, Thursday 17/06 - I went shopping which was a pretty useless endeavor. I didn't buy anything... Oh, except for a lip gloss cause I couldn't find anything else. In one of the first shops I went in to I met Sophia. She was shopping too & also happened to speak English so we ended up spending the day together shopping. It was really nice to have some company & its really good when you just kinda click with someone straight away. In the shop we met in the shop assistant thought we were strange & I was telling her it was the first time we me & she's like no, you've been friends for a while, quite funny really.

Friday 18/06 - Honestly during the day I don't remember what I did. I didn't write anything in my pocket diary so I probably didn't get up to much. That night though Mora took me to one of her friends places in the suburbs. The house was huge & really awesome, it was a good night but a really late one.

Saturday 19/06 - I spent most of the day in front of the TV then Saturday night Mora, Nico (her brother) & I went to a live Argentinean hip-hop concert. It was awesome.

Sunday 20/06 - I met Mora's dad, & Mora, Nico & I went out for lunch to a really nice restaurant. Then that night Mora's mum had gotten us tickets to a awesome show called De La Guarda. It was amazing, the most unusual 'kind' of theater that I've been to, it's pretty much all going on around & above you as opposed to traditional theater which is in front of you. They use harnesses to swing form the ceiling (or where ever) & lighting to create the most awesome effects, very emotive music including drums, stages that wheel out into the audience which the actors dance on & there's also a liberal use of water :) I was soaked by the end of it. At one stage the actors roam through the audience & pick people up to be hooked up to another actor & taken for a flight. I got picked up but unfortunately didn't get to go up. I don't know if I've described it correctly but it was FANTASTIC!!!! At the end I was so wet & it just happened to be raining out side so I decided it would be a good idea to jump around in the puddles, that was fun too :) It took my sneakers 2 days to dry but I think it was worth it.

Monday 21/06 - I slept in & once again went shopping, this time on Florida (a more tourist type area) & managed to find some cords (pants), no jeans though. They're Levis and were quite reasonably priced, $119pessos ($60au) which isn't to bad. I also did a bit of the tourist thing & went to Plaza de Mayo & saw La Ccasa Rosardo, the main government building I believe & a few other awesome looking buildings. That night Sonia, who I'd met on Thursday was back form Igazu & called me & we arranged to meet up the next day to do some more sight seeing.

Tuesday 22/06 - I had such a great day, it was so full on but just FANTASTIC. I actually got out of bed at a decent time & met Sonia at 9.30. We caught the 152 bus to La Boca. La Boca is a suburb in Buenos Aries that has heaps of different coloured houses. I read why it was famous but at this point in time can't remember. The houses are cool though. After that we jumped back on the bus & got off at the main train station to catch a train to Tigre so that we could go & see the Delta. The Delta is quite different & really pretty & peaceful. Basically there are lots of rivers (Delta...) but people actually live on the little islands in between so the ferry goes form house to house as needed & picks people up form their private jetty's. There's also restaurants & parks & things, its pretty cool. We got off the ferry & had lunch at one of the restaurants then went for a bit of a walk & caught a ferry back. I can't even remember how long the train took now... I think at least a hour or maybe only 40min... When we got back to Santa Fe (street near Moras house) we had ice-cream. Sonia had mentioned earlier in the day that the ice-cream in Argentina was supposed to be one of the best in the world. I tell you, their Dulce de Lechie is to DIE for!!!! It's the best thing I think I've ever eaten & I'm glad I only tired it the day before I was due to leave or otherwise I think I'd be the size of a balloon. I no longer have any will power... After ice-cream, we'd both been saying that we'd like to try the tango, we went to a place where I saw a banner that said, of all things, 'TANGO' & thought we'd see if we could do a lesson. They had one starting at 8pm I think it was (once again brain not working & I can't remember & it has nothing to do with me getting a 'little'... tipsy last night. Honest!...) anyway, the whole thing was that we had 30min to get home shower & change. Plus I wanted to check my email to see if any of you actually love me enough to write to me ;) (I believe that's called a guilt trip, hehehehe). So all said & done we made it back to the tango lesson on time. I'd forgotten how much I LOVE to dance, like proper dancing (in this post I've noticed I'm quite fond of the whole CAPITAL letter thing... hmmm, interesting...). I had such a great time. The lesson was for 2 hours & tango is rather hard but I managed to pick up a bit & have a great time. After tango we went for dinner. In Argentina the eat really late so turning up at a restaurant on a Tuesday night at 10.30, 11pm isn't that unusual. We went to Grants buffet, the food was really good. After eating we decided that we had to top the day/night off with a drink. All in all it was a wonderful day, we both had such a good time & managed to fit so much in - god knows how we did it! :o)

Wednesday 23/06 - I had heaps of bits & pieces that I needed to do so I met Sonia about 11 & then set out to get the things I needed & also try & find a) a bed roll for me to sleep in on Africa & b) a marte cup. Of course me been me I didn't want a normal bed roll, one of the foam mats that's like 1 cm thick (I am going to be sleeping on it for like 4 or 5 weeks) I want a proper thermerst. None of the out door shops had one, so I didn't end up buying one. I also had this great idea to send stuff I didn't need at home. A little forethought here would have come in handy. I basically had to run round like a mad cow (not that I've seen a mad cow running round but you know what I mean) to try & find the things I needed then get moving to the post office before it shut. Plus cause I hadn't put any thought in to sending things home I didn't have time to get any presents for anyone... Anyway, I managed to get to the post office & it cost me $159pessos ($80au) to send 3kgs home. Its strange, at the local post office they won't take anything over 2kg's so I had to make a trip to the main post office. After the post office I stopped off at Moras mums gallery. It was really cool & they have some great pieces. I went home got changed then took Mora, Nico & their mum out to dinner. Then of course afterwards we went & had ice-cream. Dulce de Lechie for me of course.

Thursday 24/06 - my flight was at 13.20 so I had to be at the airport just after 11am so Mora drove me down to the airport bus & I caught the 10am shuttle. The flight was ok, nothing to exciting, saw a few good movies, tried to sleep but that didn't happen. I got maybe 2hours if that. I think I've been spoilt by the semi carma buses in South America :)

Friday 25/06 - It was so cool to get off the plane at heath row & get on the airport bus & read all the signs in English. I actually can't wait to be back in a English speaking country. Anyway I transferring to a different terminal & caught my flight to Lisbon, where I think I've already updated.

This was suppose to be a quick post but its taken me 3 different internet sessions to write it! :o) It's all good.

Lisbon - Portugal, Tuesday 29th June 2004, 12.40pm

I'M IN EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-06-26T19:21:00.000+08:00

How bloody cool is that!!!

Its strange though, it doesn't feel like I'm in Europe, more like a cleaner part of Brazil, same language & all. Oh, but lets not forget how expensive it is!!!

I'd looked up on the net for accommodation for Lisbon when I was in South America but the hostel was booked out so I rocked up to the airport yesterday & said... "I need a cheap hotel"... 70euro later ($122au) I'm staying in a very basic hotel. Needless to say this spun me out completely but what can you do, the Euro 2004 cup is on so here so things are a little crazy. Needless to say my first priority was to find cheaper accommodation so I surfed the net a little and found something for 50euro. Then I thought on the off chance I'd just turn up at the hostel about 11am (usual check out time) & see if I could get a bed. After getting a little lost & walking round with my backpack on for 20min in the heat (its 28oC - HOT!) I found the hostel (22.50euros, $40au)) & they have a bed for tonight but don't know if they will for the next 2 nights after that... Spose I'll just have to wait & see.

At the airport yesterday getting on the bus I met Yip, who's form England he'd come over to watch the footy. We met up at the Stadium before the game & its was a pretty cool atmosphere but not worth spending 135euros on a ticket to watch the game. After the game we met up & had some dinner & a few drinks at a place called Docks. It was pretty cool, heaps & heaps of people.

Well, better get moving. The flight yesterday was ok. I think I only had about 2hours sleep in 37hours but it was all good :o) It's amazing what your body gets used to. Maybe that's why I've still got a cough...

I've actually written posts about the last week in South America just have to type them up... Will try & do it in the next few days.

Lisbon - Portugal, Saturday 26th June 2004, 12.40pm

Stuff.

2004-06-18T08:35:00.000+08:00

I started writing this on the 17/06 in BA but never got round to finishing it so I'll just post it & try & edit it later on.
I've finally got a bit of time so thought I'd write down some of the things that I've noticed while been away... Now that I've written that half the things I was going to write have now slipped my mind... Typical :o)

I keep forgetting to mention the whole turn style thing they have going on in the local buses in Brazil. Believe me they didn't think of people with backpacks when the installed them. Basically they have the driver then they have another person that sits behind the turn style & takes your money. It's... Different.

Have I mentioned the long distance busses before? Well if I have you can read it again :o) They're really comfortable, a lot of the ones I've been on in Brazil & Argentina have these foot rest things that come down that your legs rest on & the seats recline so you can actually get a decent sleep. On most of these busses the toilets suck though :)

When I was in Uruguay I noticed that heaps of people were carrying around thrermos flasks & mate cups. They have a special kind of tea leaf that they put straight into a wooden cup

I went shopping this afternoon, & I hate to say it but, I think its no longer one of my favorite pass times. How sad is that!!! I suppose its different when you can just buy stuff & it doesn't really matter if you use it or not. But when your thought process is "I only have 3 pairs of pants, do I really like the ones I'm trying on more than the ones I have?" Reason been, if I buy something new, something old has to go. Plus the clothes here are made for tall slim people... doesn't help!

Only 10 days left in South America!

2004-06-15T08:07:00.000+08:00

Edit: I actually started writing this post on like Sunday or Monday... I've just been really slack!.

My god, where did the time go!?!?! I`ve been here almost 3 months. I kinda feel like I'm coming to the end of my trip but I suppose that there is only more to come :o) Next. Portugal (Lisbon) for 4 days then 6 weeks in Africa. I think that's plenty to look forward to. I kinda wish Id spent a bit more time in South America, there is so much that I haven't seen. Quick run down on what I've been up to as per usual.

Friday 11/06 - I was awake for a grand 26 or 27 hours. I think that this is a magnificent effort & maybe even my best yet. After updating I got ready to go out then we (Ben, Simmi & I) went to the supermarket & got supplies. Simmi had met another French guy (Sebastian) that was staying at the hostel but who had just moved into a house with a few other people so we were invited over. (A bottle of really good vodka only cost me $169 (under $10au) by the way). The house was really cool & so were the people living there, I had such a good time. We sat round drinking, talking & listening to music till 1am, I think, then decided to go out. This place is really awesome their are barely any tourists & the people here love to talk to you, more so than anywhere else I've been. We ended up at a Irish pub & then another club. Anyway ended up talking on the street for a while to a whole bunch of people (till 5am). Think I got to sleep at some stage after 7am but I have no idea. I woke up about 11am feeling quite awake. I figured out that in the 48 hours I'd had all of 8 hours sleep (all of which has been interrupted in one way or the other). I really enjoyed Montevideo & met some awesome people so decided to stay Saturday night too.

Saturday 12/6 - I was a bit of a zombie, but managed to wonder round the shops & do a few things that I needed to do. I had a sleep form 5pm to 7pm though which was good. Sebastian had invited us back to their place for a roof top bbq. It was pretty cold so I didn't stay on the roof top for long, the bbq was great but I cant believe how tired I was. I left about 1am, I needed sleep. At 5.30 in the morning the hostel owner comes into the room & turns on the light... & then brings 2 new girls into the room - um, I was very pissed off to say the least. I think I was one of the only girls staying at the hostel & there were at least 2 or 3 empty rooms so who knows what she was thinking.

Sunday 13/6 - I had to get up about 7am cause I was heading to Coloina with a few other guys form the hostel. It was a 2.5 hour bus trip, my last in South America! Coloina is such a pretty town. I really liked it. Ron, one of the guys I caught the bus with who also happens to be a kiwi, & I walked around the town for a few hours. I swear I was very much affected by sleep deprivation. For one my coordination sucked, I must of tripped over a million times & almost broke my ankle walking out of the bus station :o) It made me laugh so I'm sure anyone watching would have had a chuckle too. It seems Ron & I were stalking each other but we didn't actually meet till Montevideo. He was at the same hostel as me near Igazua & then in the same apartment block that I stayed at in Florinopolis very freaky! The ferry over to Buenos Aries didn't take that long & it was easy to jump in to a taxi to Mora's place.

It was so cool to see her & really nice to acutely know someone. I was a little hyped. Moras mum & brother are really cool too. We went out to dinner & al I can say is the meat here is WONDERFUL. We had 3 different types of Beef & one they actually cut with a spoon its so tender.

Monday 14/6 - I slept in. I think I was (and still are) recovering form a) my 27 hours without sleep & b) my cold, its still hanging round a little. I met up with Ron in the afternoon to do a spot of shopping. He brought a $1700pessos cashmere trench coat & I brought a $500pesso ($245au) Columbia jacket. I'm sure at home they are like $500au. I'm very happy with my purchase, its not a real trendy jacket but its still cool. Its a 3 in one with a interchange system & vortex waterproofing (kinda like gortex I think). So basically it has a fleece that sips in & out so you can 1) just have the waterproof / windprrof shell, 2) just have the fleece (which is black & quite decent looking) or 3) zip in the fleece & it becomes this super warm waterproof windproof jacket. The colours aren`t to bad either, black arms & a dark grey body. Can you tell its been a while since I've been shopping :o) Still need to buy some jeans & tops & are thinking of getting a new contact prescription here too.

Tuesday 15/6 - I seem to love sleeping in here, think its cause I actually have a room to myself & its so different form been in a hostel. I went for a walk down to Riecoleta & spent some time in the church & walking through the cloisters which have been turned into a museum. There were also quite a few market stalls which were pretty cool. For the first time in ages I watched TV & it was nice just to blob & relax. Moras best friend & Nicos (Moras brother) best friend came over for Moras mums birthday dinner. Its times like that, that I wish my Spanish was so much better. I could under stand bits but not that much of the conversations. I cant quite explain it but it was like one big family & the vibe was so cool! They all speak so fast! :o)

Wednesday 16/6 - Went back down to Riecoleta (a suburb) & this time went to the cemetery. Sounds weird but I tell you its fantastic! Tuesday there was a feurnal & I felt wrong going in but yesterday it was fine. It really is like a little city & so different to anything I've ever seen before. There are tombs some are amazing. I went to have a look at Evitas tomb too but there were so many tourists I couldn't take a photo. I expected something a little more grand. After the cemetery I went to the Art museum. There were some really cool pieces & I really enjoyed wondering around. Then I went to the cultural centre & took in another exhibition which was really cool. So many different styles. Yesterday afternoon, with Mora, I went to one of the biggest supermarkets I have ever seen. It was huge! Last night I met up with a friend I went to school with in Cusco. It was great to see him. It really doesn't seem like its was 2 months ago I was in Cusco.

Today (Thursday 17/6) - I got in just after 2 I think so once again slept in :O) I don't really feel like doing much so thought Id better update cause its been a while. Think some shopping is called for this afternoon :o)

Buenos Aries - Argentina, Thursday 17th June 2004, 2.35pm

I really like this place!

2004-06-12T05:45:00.000+08:00

Well apart from getting here at 5am this morning & everything been closed & it not getting light till well after 7.30am its got a awesome vibe to it & I feel really safe here. Maybe I really am a city girl after all... Like I said I got here at 5am but it was a choice of staying in Floronopolis (Sp?) for another 5 hours in the rain, yes it was pissing down, or jumping on the next bus that left town & ending up in a different country at a strange time in the morning... We know which option I took :) I figured that the hostel would be open about 7ish so I spent 2 hours at the bus station here (which really isn't that big a deal & something I've really gotten used to) as opposed to 5 hours at the other one. The bus trip was good. The first 7 or so hours we were on a real fancy bus with leather seats! & for the whole trip they brought us snacks & drinks & oh get this.... THEY PLAYED ENGLISH MOVIES, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! Was very cool & I was a happy little bunny. The R$179 ($90au) ticket didn't include lunch like I thought it would but it did include dinner, a really nice buffet. Was good to have a bit of a treat, it was my last long haul bus trip in South America, only 18hours this time.

Anyway, got to the hostel about 7.30 & thought I was the only one staying there... I didn't want to go to sleep so I cleaned up, brushed my teeth & went exploring. Its actually a really pretty city with a lot of trees of old buildings. I really love autum & here the trees have dropped most of their leaves & they are lining the ground. Its prett cold though, thermal top, flece, jacket, gloves, scarf & hat kinda weather.

I got my other memory card put on CD too for $U120 ($6au). The exchange rate isn't to bad, $1au is $U20.87. I swear though that my brain is going to explode form the math I have to do when I buy things. The money differences is one of the things that sucks about traveling to so many different countries in such a short space of time, but its all good :) Anyway, got back to the hostel about 12pm & tried to figure out money & how much I would actually need for the next few days. This morning before I got to check the exchange rate on the net I took some money out, $U300 thinking it would be plenty - WRONG! I hate it too cause the banks gonna charge me $5au for the transaction :( Anyway got out $U3000 (approx $150au?) so that's gonna last me forever, Ill have heaps left over so will just change it when I go to Argentina, its easy enough to do.

I was so happy today, I walked passed a hairdressers & saw mouse, for like adding volume to your hair, so excited. The last 3 or so weeks I've been without mouse & have contemplated shaving my head, hence when you see photos note the bandana or hat :) I looked all over Chile & Brazil & couldn't find it anywhere. I paid $U273 so are sure I got ripped off but I don't care! I now have mouse or is it moose?? Today has been a wonderful day.

Oh, sorry got side tracked. When I went back to the hostel I met Ben form Belgium & Simmie form France. We went for a walk & got some lunch, so much meat! & only cost $U150 (less than $10au), it was a really, really nice meal in a nice restaurant. After lunch we pretty much walked around town till I came here to download some of the photos.

The internet is actually pretty cheap here $U15 (less than $1au) for a hour, its a bit solw though & is taking 50min to download only 40photos. But I wanted to check email & thought I might as well post so I might as well down load some of the photos too.

Tonight, I believe a group of us are going to a Irish pub. Its funny, I thought I would have gotten really tired by now but I'm fine. Gonna go back to the hostel & have a shower & use my mouse :)

Montevideo - Uruguay, Friday 11th June, 7.20pm

Finished loading photos

2004-06-10T08:15:00.000+08:00

MP photos & Peru & Bolivia photos - done. I aren´t as far behind as I thought, still have 1 memory card to burn on to CD then download & thats it.

Wed 9th June 2004

The last few days have been interesting

2004-06-10T07:20:00.000+08:00

Warning: spell check isnt working. You thought my spelling was bad b4? I´m sure you´ll be shocked now. Also the PC doesnt like it when i use ´ .

Up until last night I hadnt spoken english in over 48hours. This in its self is pretty tuff. I made a few intersting decisions too that once upon a time would have spun me out but I spose thats all part of the game.

I decided to stay in Paranagua Monday morning thinking that I could catch a 1pm ferry out to Ilha do Mel, which is a island 2 hours by boat form Paranagua. I thought I was so close I might as well go to a island. Problem number 1 was that I was told the wrong time for the ferry. The guy at the hotel assured me that the ferry left at 1pm (on the weekends maybe...) at 3pm when the engin started up I was like, ok must be local time... No big deal... Should have read my guide book a little better, had the correct times in there :) When I arrived as per usual there was a tout offering accomidation. I went & had a look & it was a nice enough room with a double bed, tv (with english movies!) etc but it was in more of a hotel so I opted for the hostle thinking Id meed some people... Wrong choice! Only 2 other people were staying at the hostle & I didnt even see them... The guide book also mentioned that out of season not much is happening on the island. By that I thought there would be a few travellers etc um, nope. I think I was the only person on the whole island that spoke english. The island was really pretty & I watched a beautiful sunset, however, been the only non local there I decided not to stick around. I got there at 5pm Monday night & left 9am Tuesday morning.

Tuesday 8/06 - I caught a ferry over to Portal do Sul then was going to catch a bus to Paranagua but couldnt find the bus stop so asked some people that were on the ferry where it was & it turned out they were going to Paranagua too & offered me a lift. I took it. Then when we got there the lady got out & the man said he was going to Curtiba, where I needed to catch my bus to Florinopolis from. I thought I might as well take the free lift. I can say though I was a little happier when we stopped to pick up his mother in-law. So instead of costing me R$15 or R$20 to get to Curtiba I spent nothing :) I tried to give him R$10 but he wouldn´t take it. Intresting really, we couldnt really talk cause he didnt understand spanish (or english) so I said like maybe 5 words to them but he was still happy to give me a lift. It saved me about 2hours travel time too.

I got to Curriba about 12.15pm & started the task of going to the differnt bus companies booths to try & find the next bus that was leaving for Florinopolis. In my guide book it said that it would take 4.5hours to get here... um.... WRONG. My bus left at 1.15pm (the ticket cost R$27) & didnt get here till 6.30pm. Im not a big fan of arriving anywhere in the dark. As always though things have a way of working out & there was a tout to meet me at the bus station. Things are pretty dead here this time of year too & there is only one hostle on the island in the city, not the beach. So I ended up taking the touts offer & staying at the beach in a apartment. Someone came & picked me up form the station & it was all very easy. It only cost R$25 so its not to bad plus it has TV, double bed & a kitchen. Its not flash by any means but its clean so its all good. Last night there were 2 german guys in the same complex so I got my fix of english conversation & we proceeded to get very drunk.

Today 9/06 - Well, for the fist time in ages I woke up with a bit of a hang over. I know I really should have gotten up & done the whole sight seeing thing but honestly, I couldnt be bothered :) I had NO clean clothes (had to wear my bikin & shorts today) so first thing I found a laundry then went for a walk on the beach. Had some lunch back at the apartment then grabbed a book and spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the beach reading & wathing kite surfers. Its really nice just been able to chil out. It so much harder travelling by yourself, quite tiring really. I really enjoyed today & I´m now looking forward to a early night.

The plan for the next few days... Tomorrow I´m going to try to catch a bus to Montevideo in Uruguay, supposedly its going to cost me R$179 - thats like the most I would have spent on any kind of transportation since Ive been here. Its a 20hour trip & they give you food & the bus doesnt stop & start so I suppose itll be worth it. Depending on if I like it in Montevideo I might stay there a few day or just go to a little town called Colonia. From Colonia I can actually catch a ferry over to Buenos Aries. So thats the plan, I´m hoping to get to Buenos Aries by then 14th so I can catch up with a friend I met in Cusco. Plus I can´t wait to see Mora, I´m actually really excited.

Ok, better go...

Keep in touch guys. xoxoxox

Ilha Santa Catilina (island) Florinopolis - Brazil, Wednesday 9th June 2004, 9.10pm

More photos :)

2004-06-07T22:04:00.000+08:00

I didn't realize how far behind I was with down loading photos! Problem is it just takes so dam long (2hrs) I did most of one CD last night but didn't quite get to finish it. There´s just not enough time to do everything.

I still have to finish loading the MP CD & have another one that I need to load... I just finished another memory card to so have to find somewhere to load that on to CD too.

I've been just a little snap happy, that's the problem when you have a digital camera!

Off to Idha do Mel this afternoon & will stay there a night or 2 before heading down the coast a little...

Paranagua - Brazil, Monday 7th June 2004, 11.15am

Oi!

2004-06-06T07:59:00.000+08:00

Been meaning to use that as a title for a while but keep forgetting. Oi is Hello in Portuguese :)

Was going to write a bit more tonight rather than the did this did that thing but I think that's all you're going to get... There's just so much stuff that I've seen/done that it'd be cool to comment on but I've just been chatting with mum via yahoo messenger so have already been online for about a hour...

Where am I now? God know :) haven't really explored yet as soon as I got here about 2pm this afternoon I went to sleep. The cold seems to have calmed down a little now, thank god.

Saturday 5/06 - Last night Niki & I caught the bus form Foz at 8pm & we arrived at Curitiba at 5.45 this morning. Managed to get a bit of sleep. The bus seats are really cool & recline back quite a way then you have this leg & foot rest thing so you're almost lying down (bus form Rio was the same). Would have had a good sleep if we didn't stop every 5 seconds.

When we arrived at Curitiba we asked a local for directions to the train station. Its kinda freaky, Niki doesn't speak either Portuguese or Spanish & so far I've been lucky & have been with someone who's spoken more of the language than me. Now its kinda up to me to make us understood... The cool thing is I'm doing a ok job at it too :) We made it to the train station. We had to wait a hour in the freezing cold till it opened then another hour before it left. Its a senic line that goes over the rain forest & you get some pretty amazing views. Sad thing was I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have due to feeling a) sleep deprived & b) still kinda sick. They are rebuilding the line so after a 2 hour trip with a group of rowdy Portuguese school children :) we had to get off & change to a bus that we had to wait till 12.25pm for (1,5 hrs). So all in all we started out at 8pm last night made 3 changes of transportation & finished up at 2pm. Not a bad effort :) When we arrived we got ripped off by a taxi driver R$6 for a 2 min ride but honestly I probably would have paid R$10 just so I woudn´t have had to carry my pack!

Need to write more but they are closing up the shop... Will update the rest tomorrow. Think I've figured out the plan of attack & added another country to my list of places to go :)

Paranagua - Brazil, Saturday 5th June 2004, 9.30pm

This whole remembering what day it is thing...

2004-06-05T04:44:00.000+08:00

... is so bloody hard!!!

I know I left Rio on Tuesday, I think it was the 1st of June... My last night in Rio was Monday night & we went to a great restaurant on Copacabana beach & I had the best banana split - YUM! Then we walked around the night markets & I brought a great canvas painting of a Fevala with a the Christ statue in the background. I got it for R$20 ($10au) instead of R$40 so I was quite happy with that. After the markets we met up with the owner of the hostel & had a few drinks at what's kinda like a milk bar type thing but they sell alcohol. You pretty much just stand on the street & drink. I got talking to a couple of local ladies. It was quite cool, I was able to talk in Spanish & they could understand me. One of them spoke English so that helped too :)

Tuesday, well say the 1/06/04 - Had to say good bye to Louise. I had such a good time with her we got on so well! If your reading HI!!! & hope you made it home safe & sound, will email you soon. Its funny you meet so many people when you're traveling but its so cool when you really, really click with some one.
Was talking to one of the other girls at the hostel, Niki, Monday night & said I was going to Iguazu falls & she was saying that she was thinking about going too. She went & booked her ticket & we caught the 1pm bus together. Its always nicer to travel with someone. The bus trip took about 23 hours & suprisingly I spelt reasonably well. We got here about 12pm Wednesday. Its funny, you loose a day...

Wednesday 2/06/04 - didn't do much in the afternoon, just chilled out. The A/C on the bus didn't do much for me & was a little bit of a cold turned into my nose going form been blocked to continually running to been blocked again along with my ears blocking up & me feeling not 100%. But hey, its all good, at least I don't have to be at work :)

Thursday 3/06/04 - Caught a bus to Argentinean to see that side of the falls. We stopped of at a point where you can see the 3 countries divided. Argentina, Brazil & Paraguray (I cant spell). I thought it was pretty cool. After that we went on to the national park. I cant believe how big the park / falls area is. Its amazing. We would have got there just after 10am & didn't leave till 6pm & it was a pretty full day. So much to see. We also did a jet boat ride under the falls which was cool! You get soaked though if you're not prepared. Basically I had my rain coat & a poncho on then I rolled up my pants & put plastic bags around my shoes. When you only have 4 or 5 changes of clothes they become pretty dam precious :) Which also reminds me, all of my photos will look the same as I don't have any different clothes. I do make sure they are clean though... Well at least my underwear anyway :) I'm actually sitting here in jeans that need to be washed... At the next stop. Took way to may photos of waterfalls but they were so pretty so it doesn't matter. The hostel is in the middle of no where so just ate, didn't do anything.

Friday 4/06/04 (today) - we went to the Brazilian side of the falls. Didn't think that they would be anywhere near as good but man, the view was awesome! So different. From the Argentinean side it was more a close up look which was cool but form the Brazilian side you got more of a view of all of the falls, I really didn't realize how many of them there actually are. Totally breathtaking. After that we were going to try & go duty free shopping in Paragury but kinda ran out of time. Were going to catch a bus to Curitibia (don't know if that's how you spell it) tonight. Its a 10hour trip & is fairly close to the coast (still in Brazil). I was going to head down to BA but think I might take a bit more time to get there. I fly out on the 24 of June so still have heaps of time. Haven't decided where I'm going yet so if anyone has any suggestions let me know. Thinking of either a) going down the coast of Brazil then through Uraguray or b) going through Argentina & maybe stopping off a few places there before BA... Not sure. Maybe Ill meet up with some people that are doing something interesting. Nikis going back to Rio so that's not really a option.

Ummm, don't know if I've missed anything, I feel like crap but are ok & still enjoying been here which is the main thing I suppose. Think Ill spend a day in bed when or if I get the chance :) Oh I did go & get that massage & get my nails done. It was so cheap - R$20 for both hands & feet & the massage was R$40 for 40min. One of the most unusual massages I've had but it was still good :)

Foz (town near Igazua falls) - Brazil, Friday 4th June 2004, 6.20pm

Um... Still in Rio... :o)

2004-05-31T23:31:00.000+08:00

Well, was thinking of leaving last Wednesday, then that changed to thinking of leaving Saturday, then to Monday... But well, I'm still here :) I've booked my bus ticket though & leave for Foz do Igazu tomorrow. The weathers turned to crap so it makes it easier to leave.

Why have I stayed so long you ask? Yes, 11 nights in one place is a pretty long time considering about 3 nights has been my record in the last month or so. I've met some awesome people & have just had so much fun hanging out here with Louise. Plus I've actually got a tan!!!! Very exciting! I must admit that drinking Capri-vodka's on the beach at 11.30 in the morning is something that you could very easily get used to :o)

Think I last updated Thursday... Its now Monday so that leaves the weekend to update on...

Thursday night (27/05) - Actually had a quite night in... As always memory isn't functioning too well...

Friday (28/05) - Spent most of the day at the beach. I brought a brazil soccer shirt. Think it was a kids one but it looks good. Was only R$20. It sucked though. When we were talking to the sales guy Louise had her purse stolen. You have to be so careful here & even then things still happen. I had 2 capri-vodka's with Kiwi fruit - YUM! Should have only had one but they are so good! It never ceases to amaze me how much vodka they put in them. Its pretty much full vodka with the fruit, sugar & ice - no mixer, but they taste soooo GOOD! Needless to say that I slept most of the afternoon :o)
I cant remember what we did for dinner, but Hika & Lina came over to the hostel & a group of us went to Lapa. It was amazing, so many people, I love the vibe there. It wasn't so good for the other girls though. Both Louise & Hika are quite tall, blond & very beautiful so the guys could see them coming form quite a way away & they got their hair touched & were been groped form all directions so them & Lina left after 10 minutes or so. Jen & I stuck around & went to a really good hip hop club. I spose it does have some advantages been short, I get no where much as attention :) It wasn't really a late one, we got back to the hostel about 4am. And that was after trying to explain to the taxi driver that we wanted to stop off for some food, neither Jen or I speak Portuguese so we tried in Spanish which he didn't understand, it took quite a bit of explaining but we got their eventually. At the fast food place this guy started speaking to me in broken English for like 2 minutes, which was cool, then he goes: kiss? & I'm like: Um, No. Then he said good bye & went like he was going to kiss me on the cheek but tried for the lips anyway. It was all harmless but I must admit these Brazilian boys love to kiss - its like Hello then they try to plant one on you :o) Lots of fun if their good looking...

Saturday (29/05) - Think we (Louise & I) spent the morning at the beach. Then at 2pm we got picked up at the hostel & went to a soccer game. Going to a soccer match in Brazil! How cool is that! Their wasn't a huge crowd but it was awesome. The drums were out & the vibe was so cool. I had such a good time. It cost R$45 for the transfer & ticket but I got to take my camera with me & Lewis (the guide) promised it wouldn't get stolen so I got some good photos. After the game we were pretty tired so stayed at the hostel, I cooked a awesome steak, mashed potatoes & broccoli. First time I've had broccoli in ages, it tasted sooo good!

Sunday (30/05) - Another beach day... :) The weather yesterday was sooo good, really hot. As per usual had to have a capri-vodka, Louise is a bad influence on me ;) Then we met Hika & Lina who had arranged with a taxi driver to take us to the Christ statue & sugar loaf for R$90 which is pretty good. Id all ready been to see the Christ statue but thought it'd be good to see it again. Problem was when we got up there there was so much fog we could only see the bottom of the statue, no big deal. After that we went to Sugar Loaf which is one of the mountains that looks over Rio & it has a cable car which goes to the top. The cable car cost R$30 ($15au). It was the best view. We stayed up there till it started to get dark & watching Rio light up was really beautiful.

Today (31/05) I've booked my bus ticked & we went to the police station to pick up the police report for insurance for Louise re her having her purse stolen. I leave at 1.30pm tomorrow. Its a 21hour bust trip so that should be fun ;) It cost R$139 ($70au) which isn´t to bad plus I save on a nights accommodation. Speaking of accommodation I asked this morning how much my bill was up too & he's like oh, if you stay 10 nights you get 1 night free. Bonus! Today its raining, I'm going to get my nails done & look for a massage :)

Well should get going. Miss you guys! Email me & let me know what's happening in your lives, ok?!?!?! I love checking my emails & actually hearing from you.

xoxox

Rio - Brazil, Monday, 31st May 2004, 1,15pm

Emails

2004-05-28T03:31:00.000+08:00

Hey guys,

Please don't send large joke / attachment emails to me.

unfortunately half the time I don't get to read them anyway cause they take to long to open & my email account got maxed out today...

Don't get me wrong, I still love hearing form you!!!!!!!

xoxox

This is the life!

2004-05-28T02:43:00.000+08:00

Really. This is what I'm doing at the moment - nothing. And I'm loving it!!! Well apart form beating myself up for 2 days because I haven't done nothing in a while. Its strange not to be rushing form place to place trying to fit god knows what into a unrealistic amount of time... I still haven't decided when I'm going to leave Rio yet either. I was going to leave yesterday with a Swedish guy to a Island 2 hours south of Rio but decided not to :) So I'm still here. I spose I have done a few things of note... That I should write down but I left my pocket diary at the hostel so don't know how to spell any of the places that I've been too :)

Monday (23/05) - Actually got off my rear end & did a day tour of Rio. It started at 9.30am & finished at about 5pm so it was quite a full day. We started off by going to the national park that is pretty much bang smack in the middle of Rio & hiked up one of the mountains for about 40min & had a great view form the top. It was really pretty. Then we went to another park & looked at a waterfall that was about 40meters high. I think it supplies some of the drinking water for Rio. I cant wait to see Igazu falls. Then we made our way up to the statue of Christ. The view of Rio up there is truly amazing. I got some fantastic photos. After that we went to one of the oldest suburbs in Rio Santa Teresa & had lunch then went on a tram ride into centro. After the tram ride we went & saw the steps of Lapa which are pretty cool. This Chilean guy basically got tiles form all over the world & tiled the steps, it looks really good. I think that was about it for the tour. Trying to remember Monday night... Oh we were tired so ended up eating at a restaurant where you pay by the kilo. Nick & I ate there on Sunday too. The food was really good. Then we played cards with the English girls & a aussie boy called Jason. Then a few of us sat out in the court yard & tried our best at the Brazilian fighting / dance thing...

Tuesday (24/05) - Honestly don't remember today... Ok, its coming back to me :) well bits of it anyway... Spent the afternoon wondering around centro with Nick, Jen & a Swedish boy. Centro didn't really appeal to me. We did walk through some cool markets & sat in the park & ate lunch. Although security did make us move to a different area cause the one we were in wasn't safe. I saw the weridest animals too. They kinda look like squirrels but with no tail & walk on all 4s - very strange! Tuesday night I met some very cool Scandinavian girls. Louisa form Denmark who I get along with fantasticly! & Lina & Hega from Norway, they are all so much fun! Nick, Jen the girls & I all went out for dinner & a few drinks. It was a pretty early night.

Wednesday (25/05) - the weather wasn't the greatest, I had planned on spending time on the beach but that wasn't going to happen so instead Louise, Jen & I went for a walk along Impanina beach & Copocabana beach then stopped in at the Copocabana Grand Palace Hotel for refreshments. Must have looked quite funny really these 3 backpackers in this flash hotel but it was really nice to go in and have a look. It cost me R$13 for a Caprivodka (usually between R$3-7 depending on where you go) but it was the best one I've ever tasted!!! I had it made with fresh pineapple, its a lovely drink, not bad at 12.30 in the afternoon :) I also ordered some chips & it was so cool, they brought them out on a silver tray with one of the silver domes over top - SO FLASH! I basically spent the rest of the afternoon at the hostel reading a magazines. IN ENGLISH!!! I was so excited, Marie Claire in English! It was really nice just to sit & chil. Then Louise & I decided to cook dinner for the 5 of us girls so we went & did some shopping. We made a excellent stirfry & our own caprivodkas with fresh pineapple. It was really good & it only cost R$9 each (including the vodka). I've been spending about R$15-20 on dinner not including drinks so I think Ill be making more food at the hostel. I cooked fried rice for lunch today which was really really nice.
We were supposed to go to Lapa last night but decided to leave it for another night & went to a local Irish pub instead.

Thursday (26/05) - I had the best sleep ever! The last 2 nights I haven't slept that well cause 2 other girls in the room insisted on having the fan on, they left yesterday :) I woke up very refreshed this morning. Wed arranged to met Lina & Hega at the beach at 11am but they weren't there so Louisa & I went to area 9 on the beach (where all the hot bodies hang out). Louisa went to met Jen at 12pm & found the other 2 too. Its true when they say people form Rio are beautiful. They really take care of their bodies so its very pleasant to lie on the beach & people watch :)
I spent about 3 hours at the beach before it started to get cold, then called in to the supermarket & went back to the hostel to cook lunch. I think were going to head up to sugar loaf (mountain) soon its supposed to be some of the best views of Rio. I'm such a sheep at the moment & I've very much enjoying just going with the flow & if I feel like doing what the others are doing Ill go along with it, if not I just chil out. This really is the life! Ill probably end up leaving on Sunday... And go to this place called Paraty that looks good then on to Iguza falls then to Argentina... I need to make some decisions but Ill just wait & see what happens :)

The hostel is R$40 (approx $20au) a night so its not to bad. If I eat at the hostel its pretty cheap too. Plus its just so nice to relax :)

Rio - Brazil, Thursday, 26th May 2004

Late nights & the beach go so well together!

2004-05-24T04:49:00.000+08:00

Spent most of today sleeping on the beach. Rio is FANTASTIC! I'm having such a good time.

I didn't get to sleep this morning till just after 6am & managed to watch the beginning of the sun rise over the bay. It looked pretty amazing.

Last night we went to a place called Lapa. It was awesome! Kinda like a big street party with clubs (rooms) that play different music. They sell alcohol on the street & its a pretty amazing vibe. Everyone is so chilled out & its a hell of a lot of fun. I was so happy to actually hear good music, I don't think I've been to a good club since I left Cusco...

This morning I got up about 11am & headed down to the beach & basically just lay there for most of the day. Someone was doing temp tattoos so I thought Id get a couple. One on either side of my real one cause I wanted to test out how they look before I do 2 more for real. But the guy did them way to big & I don't think it looks that great... Oh well, it was only R$30 ($15au) for 2... Ill take a photo of them. I got him to do trust & love in Chinese (with mine in the middle, happiness). Will think a bit more before I get 2 more done & look for some better symbol's.

I've just been to the markets but didn't buy much, just a toe ring :) We sat & watched the Brazilian dance / fidgeting thing. Not sure what its called but it looked cool.

Have to decide what I'm doing. Not sure how long I´m going to stay here. Need to figure it out, want to spend at least a week in BA, Argentina, with my friend Mora.. Need to do some reading. I fly out form BA on the 24th of June.

Well I´m gonna go have a shower now & head out :) Rio is soooo COOL!

Rio - Brazil, Sunday 22nd May 2004, 6.05pm

Todo Bein...

2004-05-23T01:54:00.000+08:00

Its all good...

I arrived in Rio last night & I must admit that I feel like a pretty seasoned traveler now. I haven't really been phased by anything yet & are pretty much taking it all in my stride.

Was a little curious about the whole not speaking the language thing but thus far haven't had any problems but Ill keep you updated on that one :)

Remainder of Thursday 20/05 after I last updated. I went back to the hostel & met up with Nick who'd arrived form Mendoza & we chilled for a while then decided that it would be very cool to go to the supermarket (A REAL SUPER MARKET!!!) & buy some food to cook in the kitchen (A REAL KITCHEN!!! I know it seems lame but these 2 things are very, very exciting!). We spent about $3000 ($7au) & brought potatoes & steak & I had some salad stuff left over form lunch & we cooked the best meal! I had the most mashed potato I've had in so long, it was sooo good & it was actually really cool to be able to cook! After dinner we saw a rather rowdy group playing drinking games & thought it'd be fun to join in. It ended up been quite a big night, I met quite a few cool people & ended up getting to sleep at about 5am. We went to a club with live rega music which was interesting as it was all in Spanish then went back to the hostel & chilled out. I'm meeting quite a few aussies & its interesting how easy they are to hang out with. It was actually a really cheap night, I offered to contribute for the alcohol when we were drinking at the hostel & they were like don't worry so I think I only had to pay entry for the club.

Friday (21/05) - Needless to say I had to haul my ass out of bed because I had a plane to catch so I think I had the grand total of 4 hours sleep. Id thought my plane was due to leave at 15.30... umm but I was wrong, it left at 15.00. No big deal I just turned up 1.5hours before my plane was due to leave instead of the normal 2 required... it was actually good cause I didn't have to wait around quite so long.

I caught a taxi form the hostel to the airport bus then the bus to the airport. Nothing to exciting to report on there. The plane trip was ok, it took about 5hours or so. I didn't sit next to anyone so no one to talk to. I had thought that I would probably sleep but I wasn't tired, luckily the movie was decent & passed some of the time. Its funny, here I cant be bothered reading, kinda seems like a waste of time - even on the plane. At the Rio airport, it was very easy. I thought they'd check all the places Id been & make sure Id had my yellow fever shot but they didn't seem to care. As you'd think all the signs were in Portuguese... a little different but the English underneath helped, hehe. I walked into arrivals to the touts trying to get me to take a taxi & I was like no, no, no. I had read my lonely planet & had planned on taking a bus to the hostel (even though it was 9.30pm the LP said taxis were about $20us - way to much!). Anyway one guy was very persistent & spoke some English & was like R$60 for a taxi ($30au) me been the tight ass I am was like nope too much, I don't have much money. He dropped it to R$50, me, again been a tight ass, was like nope - to much. He asked me how much & I said R$30 & he accepted it! Not bad me thinks, $15au for 30min cab ride is pretty good. The bus was going to take about 1.5hr. I was talking to some girls & they were saying that it costs R$35 when you order it over the phone so thats pretty good :)

I managed to have a conversation with the Taxi driver too. I spoke in Spanish which he could understand & I could understand bits of what he was saying. Not easy but doable. He was saying that its possible to rent apartments for R$80per night for like 4 people, so I might have a chat to Nick & see if he wants to do that. I'd be nice to have some where to chil for a few days with out a million other people around. That way if Jen comes too it'd be cheaper & we might be able to talk some one else it to it from the hostel as well. Don't know how long I'm going to spend here... Spose I should figure that out first...

I got to the hostel about 10pm & everyone was getting ready to go out, so of course been in Rio I was a bit excited & decided to test out the night life :) We were been picked up at 10.30pm so I quickly checked in, did the tour of the hostel, chucked on some make-up & did my hair & we were off. We got taken up to this place that was on the top of one of the hills with live music & heaps of people. It was pretty cool. Such a relaxed feel! It seemed more like a house party than a club. I started to get tired about 1am but managed to last till 3.30am & we made it back to the hostel about 4am. Needless to say I slept till about 12pm today :) All I can say is thank god for ear plugs! Dorms aren't made for total rest & relaxation so ear plugs really are a god send.

I'm just relaxing this afternoon. Think Nick will get here soo I've been for a bit of a walk & gotten some money out, although it wouldn't give me as much as I wanted, tried to check out net banking & its not available which sucks! The beach is only a few blocks form the hostel so I went for a bit of a walk down there too. Will be here for a few days so no rush which is really nice :)

Rio - Brazil, Saturday 22nd May 2004.

Are my posts super boring?

2004-05-21T02:53:00.000+08:00

Just wondering if its a tad boring to read all of the crap that I'm writing. Hope not but I'm not keeping a travel diary so this is pretty much my record (in saying that there are so many holes but what can ya do!)... Is there anything else that I should be including here to make it a tad more interesting? Let me know.

(Fri 20/05) HAPPY BIRTHDAY J xoxoxox Hope you got my txt. Love ya lots & I owe you a kick ass bday pressie.

Now... I'm in Santiago, Chile, & I really should be sight seeing but in all honestly I cant be bothered.

I think its just started to rain. Its the first rain that I've seen in a while actually, since I was first in Cusco I think. Interesting. Considering I didn't bring my rain coat not such a good thing... But such is life :)

I'm actually tired today, no reason. I was in bed by about 12pm last night & didn't get up till after 8am. I cant forget to mention that I had the best shower that I think I've ever had this morning. That's probably not true but the water was hot, I mean really HOT! & there was water pressure & everything, I thought I was in heaven, well for a little while anyway :)

This morning I walked around the city, changed money & went to a SUPERMARKET, yes a real supermarket (did I mention that when I was in Puno, or Cusco, that I started dreaming of supermarkets - they're pretty much non existent in Peru & Bolivia). I probably spent close to 45min just walking up & down the isles... Funny what makes me happy huh :) Santiago. Well from what I've seen its really nice & modern. I walked through the shops & to Plaza de Armas & to a few of the smaller squares & watched what seemed to be similar to the changing of the guards... Not 100% sure what it was but it was pretty cool.

I'm never going to get the money here. It has so many zeros on it. For example my accommodation costs $4500 per night ($10ish au). My brain just doesn't deal well with the zeros. I think I changed to much money, spose Ill just have to change it when I get to Brazil & lose out a little on the conversion.

The hostel that I'm staying in is pretty cool. La Casa Roja (the red house). Its a old mansion that's been converted. Its currently undergoing renovation but is pretty good in that it has chill out areas & a fantastic kitchen. Today I had a proper lunch, that I made! First time since I've been away. I had chicken & salad. I haven't been trusting the salads here so my intake of fresh veggies hasn't been that great. I had lettuce, cucumber & bean sprouts - YUM. Amazing how much I've missed that "green" taste.

Think I've had to many hours on the bus... Hence why my brain doesn't want to work. Think Ill go back to the hostel & zone out to watching TV.... But first Ill make a effort to update a little more.

Yesterday (Wed 19/5) Nick & I went for a huge walk to this park in Mendoza, it was really beautiful. Getting to Mendoza was the first real sign that its actually autumn. Everywhere has been cold but just to see the trees bare & that wonderful amber colour of the leaves was really cool. We walked around the park for a bit then took in a museum & had lunch, which I rushed out of, & left Nick alone, cause I had to catch my bus & was short on time. The bus trip took 7 hours. Its funny, all the other really long busses I've caught haven't showed movies but this one did, really good movies too, bummer was though that the scenery was so amazing crossing the Andes that you didn't need it, so I was torn between looking out the window & looking at the TV screen!

Met a few cool people on the bus. Victor, from Santiago, who I met just before I got on the bus. He's a tour guide here & speaks really good English & Hernan (don't know if I spelt that right...), form Argentina, who I met at customs. He didn't speak much English but I ended up going & sitting next to him & we made do. It always suprises me that when I have proper (complex - to me anyway) conversations how much easier the simple ones with the likes of taxi drivers are. Victor offered to take me sight seeing to the beach today (so did Hernan as well actually) but I decided to do the chill out thing. I'm actually really glad with that decision. Victor seemed a bit pissed off when we arrived at Santiago that Id gone & sat next to Hernan & made some excuse about been busy today anyway... Hernan & I grabbed some food at the bus station (which he paid for, I felt slack but he wouldn't take my money). When I caught the taxi to the hostel it was really cool, Hernan told the taxi driver where I needed to go. So arriving in Santiago was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here's hoping that Rio will be just as easy tomorrow. I keep hearing scary things about Rio but I'm sure it'll be fine :)

Nick should arrive here this afternoon & he gets to Rio the day after me & I think Jen gets there around the same time so it'll be nice to meet up with them.

Not to sure what I've missed... Hope I've made sense....

Going to blob in front of the TV now... Looks like its raining really hard outside :( think I'm going to get wet.

Love to you all xoxox

Santiago - Chile, Thursday, 20th May 2004

Ultra quick update :)

2004-05-19T05:55:00.000+08:00

I'm now in Mendoza Argentina. Yesterday I was in Salta, Argentina & the day before that I was in San Pedro, Chile :) Tomorrow I´ll be in Santiago, Chile... That's quite a few hours on the bus!!! Then Friday Ill be flying to Rio :)

The trip to Salta took about 12 hours... Wasn't to bad. The trip here, to Mendoza, took over 20 hours, lucky I can sleep on the bus :) & tomorrows bus ride will take about 7 hours.

Salta was great. We were like little kids when we arrived, it was so much more western than where any of us had been in the last few months. We were sitting in the taxi when we arrived on the way to the hostel going "look at that", "look at that!!!" It was very very exciting! There were a lot of colonial buildings too which were awesome, both Jen & Nick thought it had quite a European feel to it. Did a city tour yesterday which was good.

Think that's all I´ve got time for... Will update in Santiago if I have time, if not will have to wait till I get to Brazil!

Must go & find food, I´ve heard that the steak in Atgentina is excellent!

Was good to hear form you Karl! Try not to work to hard & HAPPY BIRTHDAY for last week!!! xoxoxo Will see you in October :)

Mendoza - Argentina, Tuesday 18th May 2004, 7.10pm

I love San Pedro!

2004-05-16T00:46:00.000+08:00

If for no other reason but that I no longer have to wear a thermal singlet under my t-shirts & that I can wear my jandals (sorry, thongs / flipflops) around town. The days are lovely & warm & hanging out in the hammock in the court yard of the hostel chatting is awesome!!!

When I got here I was like, oh... Ok..., there's nothing to it... The town is tiny & has dusty streets, quaint little shops & are cute little church which I have to take photos of this afternoon.

Yesterday I stayed in bed till after 11.30. It was cool Jen & I had had the room to ourselves so we just lay there with the door open looking out into the court yard & talking to who ever happened to pass by. I loved the whole there was no rush to get anywhere, because were in the middle of the desert & have already done the salt flats there's not a whole lot to see (except valley of the moon). Daniel walked passed (he was on the tour of Uyuni with me) & I yelled out to him so he decided to stay at our hostel so that took our room total to 3 then Jack (a aussie who also lives in Sydney) had to change rooms so now we have 4 people which is cool.

It turns out that Nick has to be in Santiago the same sort of time as me so he's going to come with Jen & to Salta, 12 hours form here, then were going to go on to Mendoza, 18 hours from Salta... Not sure how long its going to take form Mendoza to Santiago though. We went & booked out bus ticket to Salta yesterday to leave tomorrow (Sunday) & it cost $15000pesos, $34au!!!!!!!!! Oh, my goodness!!!! That is the most I've paid for transport (sin tours) since I've been in south America! But I spose we get lunch & dinner included... & there will be a toilet & comfortable seats :) Every report I've heard form travelers is that the coast of Chile doesn't have much to offer & most people just catch a 24 hour bus form San Pedro to Santiago. I've heard such cool things about Mendoza & this side of Argentina plus Jen was going so I thought I might as well check it out (even if most of it will be form a bus window). I'm actually really happy that Ill have someone to travel with too :) I fly out of Santiago on Friday the 21st but I'm pretty sure its doable... Giving me 1 or 2 days in Santiago... Well see :)

Chris & Nick went & booked a tour of the valley of the moon for us for yesterday afternoon for $3000pesos, just under $7au, which is really good. It was a awesome tour & I'm really glad that I did it. We went to a few different places, but I don't remember all there names cause most of it was in Spanish. The landscapes were awesome, sand, huge rock formations & a really really blue sky. Sunset at valley of the Moon was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Basically you walk up a really really steep sand dune(we are in the desert)& watch the sky change colours over this awesome landscape. Its such a shame that the photos wont do it justice.

We got back to the hotel just before 7pm & went straight to the bottle shop so we could have a few cheap drinks before heading out. 1 bottle of vodka was only $3000pesos! That's how much ONE drink costs at a bar.

We then tried to find a cheap happening restaurant but the best we could do was $5000pesos ($11au) for a set menu. I had some sort of corn thing for my starter which was really nice then just grilled chicken & chips followed by a desert that I couldn't eat (wheat). Think I'm going to have to go back to the place we ate at the other night, that steak was just unbelievable!

We left the restaurant in search of somewhere a little more pumping but in the end it turned out the restaurant we were at was the most happening place in town so we should have just stayed there...

I wasn't quite so bad this morning. I was out of bed by about 10am & hang out in the sun for a while before going & picking up my laundry ($2500pesos) which wasn't ready when they said it would be. I hate it when that happens, you always think the worst, that they've lost your laundry or given it to someone else. In Lapaz they tried to give me someone else's laundry... Doesn't really give you much confidence, but then, its nice to have clean clothes & not to have to wash them yourself.

Well I've been typing away for awhile & I wanted to go & edit yesterdays post cause there was heaps I missed out but not sure if Ill have the time now.

All in all its really good to just relax & chill out. Oh & plus the bed at the hostel is sooooo great its not funny, its the best bed I've slept in since I've been in South America! Plus they have a kitchen you can use which most of the hostels don't. Its called La Florida Residencial, on Antofagasta y Tocopilla for $4000peso a night. I had a cold shower this morning though cause I didn't wake up before 10am... & they make you pay up front which is also a fist but still, its a nice place & I've met heaps of cool people.

Ok must go now, no reason except its going to cost me heaps cause I've been on line over a hour. Don't you just love internet banking! It makes life so much easier when you're in a different country :)

San Pedro - Chile, Saturday 15th May, 2.05pm

F**ken Frio!!!

2004-05-15T00:31:00.000+08:00

Excuse the language but this has been the phrase of the last few days so I thought it appropriate for the title of this post :) Frio (if I've spelt it correctly) means Cold.

Once again I don't have a lot of time,& this internet connection is also competing for one of the slowest I've used thus far, so Ill do a quick over view & expand on it if I can. The last 5 days have been pretty full on & I've had such a good time.

Monday (10/05) = Lapaz to Oruro to Uyuni. Left Lapaz at 8am made it to Uyuni at 11ish.
I woke up rather early (how sad is this but I have to check my pocket diary to make sure I've got the days right!) & went to the bus station in Lapaz at about 6.50am to try & catch a 7am bus to Oruro in order to catch the train to Uyuni. I ended up on a 8am bus & got to Oruro train station just after 12pm. I was like cool heaps of time to buy a train ticket, everything´s great, no problems... Except - Rachel forgot that here everything closes for about 2.5 hours over lunch time... Including the train station. It shut at 11.30 & reopened at 2pm. All I could do was sit and wait. I was rather happy it was a sunny day. I had no problem buying a ticket when it opened & met some cool people that I've spent the last 3 or so days with. We went & had lunch in Oruro then jumped on the train & all stayed in the same hostel in Uyuni & went with the same tour company.

EDIT mon: It was so hard to find a taxi in the morning to get to the bus station. I was very much used to taxis been everywhere in Cusco. I had to walk up a huge hill with my pack on which wasn't to bad & finally found a taxi. The bus was only Bls.10.00 & had been recommended by the agency that I booked the salt pan tour with. I think I was the only gringo on the bus & had a lady sit next to me that has a thousand skirts on so at times was a little squished but considering it was only Bls.10 ($1.50au) for a 4hour trip I cant complain. We headed out of LaPaz & were off to a good start but at the top of the hill they stopped for what seemed like forever for a whole heap of other people to get on. It was a pretty good bus trip though. The train trip was so good, just over 7 hours, but the people I met were really good value so time flew. Daniel, form the states, Martin, form England, Elisa (hope I spelt that right) form Argentina & Dicla, from Israel. Everyone was pretty much traveling by themselves & Daniel, Martin & Dicla met in Lapaz & Elisa & I met them at the train station while buying our tickets. We all stayed at Hotel Avenida in Uyuni which was quite good.

Tuesday (11/05) = Left Uyuni at 11am(ish) with Colque tours. Went to salt pan which was cool then fish island then accommodation for the night.

EDIT Tue: They guys all booked with Colque tours too. Martin & I were supposed to be in the same jeep & the others in a different one. We tried to get in the same group and at one stage she said that would be fine then that changed & I ended up been by myself with a Italian couple & a French Canadian couple, none of them spoke much English. Needless to say I wasn't that happy but such is life, what can you do :) We all stayed the first night at the same place & Elisa was only doing a 1 day tour so the second day of the trip I swapped cars & was back with Dan, Marty & Dicla which was really cool, We had a heap of fun :) My wrists hurt form typing so don't think Ill write any more about the salt flats.

Wednesday (12/05) = Left accommodation bout 7.30am changed groups to be with friends & drove most of the day. Saw some cool mountain formations & awesome lakes & a lot of desert. Oh & was rather cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stayed in very basic accommodation & slept in my thermals (long johns included) as well as hat, gloves & socks.

Thursday (13/05) = Woke up at 5.45am was sooooooo cold. Didn't bother taking thermals off just put on clothes over top & was still a little cold. Oh plus had 2 pairs of socks on. Drove for a bit & saw the geysers (don't think I cant spell), I got out of the 4WD once for a photo but just couldn't make myself for the next lot that were supposed to be good... We've got them in NZ so its all good :) We drove some more & it warmed up a little (meaning it wasn't -0 something degrees. Got to some hot springs. Was so strange the lake was just ice then there were the hot springs... Had to go for a dip & was cursing myself that I only have a bikini but managed to change & get in the water with no great effort - getting changed back was a little different :) but I survived.
More driving then about 9.30 we reached the pick up point for the bus to chili & waited round there then about 11am headed form Bolivia to Chile.

Made it to San Pedro just after 1pm ish I think. The trips not that long but for the first time immigration actually looked through my bag (& everyone else's). The nice sealed road & road signs, oh, plus the lines on the road made me think that Chile might be a bit more organized in this respect.
wasn't sure what hostel I was going to stay at but of course there was a tout to meet the bus so I went with the easy option. It costs 4000 pesos a night (just under $10au so really expensive) but its one of the cheapest & nicer ones in town. Its going to take me a while to get used to paying more here... At the hostel I've met 2 English guys & a English girl & we went for dinner & a drink last night. 4900pesos for a steak... & 3700 pesos for a vodka & pina! Going to have to watch my money.

K, need to go now so much more to say but have to try & book a bus... Was going to just go straight to Santiago (24hr bus trip) but Jen, the English girl I met yesterday, is going to Salta in Argentina on Sunday so I might go there then to Mendoza then to Santiago... Have to figure out if I can do it... Will try to write more tomorrow...

San Pedro - Chile, Friday 14th May, 1.05pm

A few new photos have been posted...

2004-05-14T02:59:00.000+08:00

Will up date tomorrow :) Need to find food, r hungry.

San Pedro - Chile, think its Thursday or Friday, don´t know... 3.10pm

So annoyed...

2004-05-10T01:45:00.000+08:00

Spent all that time uploading 13 photos now the stupid thing wont give me the link so you can go & check them out!

Have to go, will try to do it tonight...

Slowest internet connection known to man!

2004-05-10T00:56:00.000+08:00

Its Sunday here & I swear all the fast internet cafes are closed... I wanted to upload my photos just in case the CD gets misplaced or stolen whilst I'm traveling but it'd take 4 hours to do here so I'm only uploading about 10 or so. Hopefully the fast cafe will be open tonight & Ill get to do all of them.

I didn't get to finish updating yesterday... Think I got to Friday.

Friday (7/05) - The bus to LaPaz & crossing the Bolivian border... When I got on the bus they gave me a Bolivian immigration form to fill in which was cool then after a few hours the bus stopped at the border & said that this was the place to change money. So I changed over some money then went to get back on the bus & was told to walk... Very interesting I thought... Someone pointed out the Peru immigration office so I stepped over the chain that blocked off the road so the bus couldn't go through & went & got my passport stamped - my passport is looking pretty cool & is getting lots of stamps :) After that we had to walk about 100m or so (cant quite remember) then que for the Bolivian immigration office & get our passports stamped & our entry visas. After everyone had that done we got back on the bus & made our way for Copacabana which is a lovely little lake side town. We got to stop here for just over a hour which was cool. I walked around the town a bit & had some lunch. I wasn't sure of the exchange rate but think I did ok. For soup & a bottle of water & it cost about Bls.9.

What I didn't realize was that in Copacabana we had to change busses. What sucked was that this one had no toilet & was a bit smaller. Here was me thinking it would be fine to drink a whole bottle of water cause there was a toilet... Needless to say I spent the last 2 hours of the bus trip hanging out for a bathroom. Anyway the trip through Bolivia was just a beautiful as the Peru part. Looking out over the lake with the ice capped mountains in the background & the bright blue was really nice. At one stage of the bus trip we all had to get off the bus & go across to the other side of a narrow part of the lake by boat, the bus went by barge. It was really nice, not to mention pretty :) I met 2 Aussie girls on the bus along with a girl form Holland, Kitti, who sat next to me. We got to Lapaz about 5ish I think, cant remember. Kitti & I decided to stay at one of the cheap hostels together, so made our way there with a couple of other girls Id met on the island tour.

Its Catcus hostel & cost Bls.23per night I think. Something like less than $4au per night. The bed I had was really bad & so lumpy so Id planned on changing hostels yesterday but Kitti offered to swap beds so I slept really well last night :)

Saturday (8/05) - Kitti & I slept in then spent the day wondering around the city & sitting in a few of the plazas people watching. It was really nice just to be able to sit there & not have some one approach you wanting you to buy something. In Cusco it was really bad & in Puno when we ate dinner they waited out side the restaurant so they could try to sell us something when we came out.

Its funny, everyone warned me about LaPaz but I actually really like it! Its strange, I never thought I was really a city person but its reminded me how much I actually missed been in a city. We ate lunch at a local restaurant - Laza for Bls.5 ($.90au) for the standard 3 courses. The restaurant was full of locals so was a bit of a experience. The food was good but the floor was filthy. After lunch we walked around again then went back to the hostel & chilled out a bit.

For dinner we went to another restaurant & paid Bls.18 for a really really nice meal. Once again 3 courses. I cant finish it all so I don't even bother trying. Still think I'm loosing weight which is a bit annoying cause my pants don't fit right... I spose Ill live :)

Today Kittis gone to the local markets about 15min out of the city & I went and had a great breakfast where I ran in to one of the people on the bus so we sat & ate together which was nice. I had fruit salad, banana juice, scrambled eggs & Coca tea, a very nice breakfast for Bls.15. This morning I also brought a really nice poncho, supposedly alpaca, for Bls40.

I haven't taken my camera out with me here though. To many people telling me to be careful. I've decided I want some photos so are going to do the real tourist thing & get on a red double decker bus this afternoon & do a tour, $6us/Bls.48.

I've booked my tour of the salt pan desert for Tuesday so I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow & catch a bus to Oruro then hopefully get a train ticket for the 3.30pm train to Uyuni. It takes about 3.5hours to get to Oruro form LaPaz then the train leaves at 3.30 & gets to Uyuni about 9pm I've been told. I like catching the bus (train) during the day that way I actually get to see a bit of the country. I haven't booked the bus ticket to Oruro either, the agent I booked the salt pan tour with said its easy enough to get form the bus terminal. So cross your fingers for me that I make it to Uyuni tomorrow night...

Oh, It also sucks here that I have no mobile phone coverage. First in Puno I couldn't find a power point & now no coverage... Oh well such is life :)

Probably wont have access to the internet for the next 4 or 5 days either, so mum don't worry about me, Ill be fine. There are so many other travelers here its not even funny.

I think that pretty much gets me upto date. I better go other wise Ill be late for my tour.

Oh & a huge HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to mum & both my Nanas. Id hoped to send a e-card but this internet connection is just so dam slow! Love you heaps!

LaPaz - Bolivia, Sunday 9th May, 1.40pm

I´m in LaPaz!

2004-05-09T06:49:00.000+08:00

Mum said yesterday that I'm not updating enough... Opps... Sorry... Here I was thinking I was boring everyone to death with my long long posts of what I'm up to!

Well as the title says I'm now in Bolivia. I didn't realize but its been about 5 days since my last post... Time really does fly!

Tuesday (4/05) - I'm sitting here trying to remember what I did... I've had to read my last update to figure out where I'm at. Tuesday morning I actually slept in then went for a wonder around the pedestrian mall in Puno to try & find a good deal on the Floating Island & over night trip to Amantani tour thing. All of them were pretty much the same as the tout form the bus terminal had offered me so I thought it fair that he get the business so gave him a call to book it. I also booked a tour of the Inca & pre Inca fuernal towers for the afternoon. Figured I couldn't spend the whole day been lazy! The island tour cost me Sl.40 & the fuernal tower Sl.15 which is pretty good (I'm now trying to think in bolivianos so wont even attempt to do the exchange to $au, Sl.10 is $3.48au). The girl I ended up staying on the island with paid $30us!!! They rip you off as much as they can. Oh & I also took my washing to get done, Sl.5 or Sl.6 per kilo... Cant remember what it cost me but I had to take all these little staple things out of my clothes when they came back. So anyway after figuring out the tours I thought I should eat. I went in to a local restaurant & paid Sl.4 (have to do the exchange rate here, its only about $1.50au!) for a 3 course meal. Potato, meat & lettuce to start, full on veggie soup for second & chicken & rice as the third. Not to mention, juice, shot of some alcohol that's supposed to help with digestion & bread as well. So cheap. Its even cheaper here in Bolivia but Ill get into that later. I got picked up at 2.30 for the afternoon tour. The fuernal towers were interesting to see but something that could probably be missed. Its interesting how they were designed & they looked pretty impressive against the bleak landscape. Got back form the tour about 6ish I think... Cant quite remember. Didn't really meet anyone on the tour so went and ate dinner by myself in a restaurant. Have to remember to take a book or something to read with me. I attempted to read a political mag that was in Spanish... Umm, yeah, very interesting ;) Had a early night. Oh, brought a wool hat, scarf & gloves cause its bloody freezing!!!!

Wednesday (5/05) - Got picked up just after 8am form the hotel & we made our way down to the jetty where the boats leave for the islands. There was about 20 of us I think & we got off to a good start with the boat engine dying when we were about 5 min out on the lake. After a little fuss we were on our way again. It took us about 30 or 40min to get out to the first floating island of Uros. The floating islands are cool, a little different than I expected, when you walk its spongy. The ones we stopped at are, of course, very much aimed at tourists with lots of little craft stalls selling handicrafts. I'm been so good and haven't brought anything I haven't needed.

After stopping at a couple of islands we made our way to Amantani, which is the large island where we stayed, it took us about 3.5 hours to get there & I still wasn't feeling 100% so I pretty much slept most of the way. When we got there we had to walk up a really, really, really steep hill to get to the family home. It just about killed me. The island is about 4140m about sea level!!! There were 2 of us staying with the one family. Claudia from Switzerland & me. We got to the house about 2.30 & had they served us lunch about 3.30. The house was very basic but really clean. The doorway into our room was really low (even I had to duck to get in). There were normal beds, blankets a table & chair in our room. I think only 2 rooms of the house had windows & doors & the little I saw of kitchen was pretty much basic mud brick with a oven/fire & basic table with a dirt floor. There was a outside (non flush) toilet, which I didn't expect. It'd obviously been put in for the tourists & after you went you needed to put a bucket of water in the bowl.

After lunch we walked to the top of the island. This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. At the top there was a preinca temple & a beautiful sunset. When we got back to the house we had a rest then were served dinner then they dressed us up in the traditional island dress for the party. I looked like a little fat dumpling. I'm very much tempted to delete the photos so you cant see but you might as well get a laugh out of it :) We had a traditional band play & danced for a while but it'd been a big day so we were in bed by 10.30pm. When we walked back to the house we had the most amazing view of the lake with a full moon & the stars were absolutely amazing! Its one of the things that I don't think Ill forget, it was so beautiful.

Thursday (6/05) - Wake up call at 7am then breakfast & the walk down to the boat. It took about 40min to get to the next island... I don't know how to spell it... Tranquile, I think... Anyway we walked about 1hour to the main plaza on the island looked at the handi crafts then walked another 20min up to restaurant and had lunch, Sl.8 for 3 courses. The island was really beautiful, the sea & sky were so blue. After lunch we walked 540 steps down to the boat & made our way back to Puno - another 3 or 4 hours. Oh I need to mention that the toilet on the boat was BAD! I had to use it the first day wasn't planning on using it again! I brought a snickers bar on this island to Sl.4 not as bad as MP :)

Thursday night met up with Claudia for dinner then went for a drink & had another early night cause my transfer for the bus to Lapaz was picking me up at 7am in the morning.

Friday (7/05) - Taxi picked me up & we went to where the bus was departing form. I was really happy with the bus, it had a toilet & I got 2 seats to myself which was cool. I really enjoyed watching the scenery go by, Peru really is beautiful. I´m still kicking myself for sleeping all the way form Cusco to Puno.

I've been typing for ages & are going to have to finish this tomorrow. Will try & upload more photos tomorrow too....

Lapaz - Bolivia, Saturday 8th May, 6.53pm

Photos have been posted!

2004-05-05T02:15:00.000+08:00

Click on the link on the right hand side that says "Lima & Couso Photos".

Wow... The last few days have been amazing!

2004-05-04T06:58:00.000+08:00

Since I last wrote I've done the 2 day Inca trail & seen Machu Picchu. It was fantastic! I was really lucky & had a really good group for the Inca trail. We had so much fun. We were a group of 5, 2 girls form Isreal, Itilia & I cant remember the other name, & a Orri form Israel & David form the States (plus me). It was strange David & I were sitting on the train last night & its hard to believe that I've only known him for 2 days. The others decided to stay in Agua Geallieanties (yes we know I cant spell) for the night.

Ok. I met the group at the train station about 5.45am on Saturday, meaning I got up just after 4am. The starting point for us was Km104 of the Inca trail, the 4 day starts at km82. The train took about 3.5hours to get there & it was really cool to watch the scenery go by, everyone else pretty much slept. We ate lunch about 10.20 then started the trek. We stoped at some runs & I found it really interesting the different styles of articture that the Incas used. I think I expected everything to be in the imperial style but that's only used for important buildings & Temples, otherwise its just rocks & a clay mortar for the villages etc which is still pretty cool. The first day of the treck didn't kill me & we took it quite slow so it wasn't to bad but some of the steep inclines made it a little difficult for me to breath but I wasn't the only one finding it hard work. It was such a hot day everyone was finding it hard. I didn't need the oxygen tho so that's a good thing :o)

I think we got to the second lot of ruins about 3ish, cant quite remember. I cant remember what they're called either... At the moment my memory is shot but more about that later. These ruins were set over a multiple of different levels & were quite large (not to mention step & the amounts of steps that we had to clime). We got to hang out here for a while cause the hostel was only about a 15min walk away. It was really cool cause the Israelis had a little camp stove with them & they boiled some water & we had a cup of tea. Sitting there on what seems like the top of the world drinking tea & chatting was really amazing. Its like you're up there with the clouds & just looking out at the land scape that the Incas would have looked at every day, it was awesome.

We got to the hostel about 4.30pm & chilled out for a while. There were so many people there, as that's where the 4 day treckers spent there last night too (all be it in tents as opposed to the hostel tho). I was quite surprised by the hostel or restaurant part, there was alcohol & music it was pretty much was like a discotech. I think Id imagined something slightly different & a little more quite. Don't get me wrong it was still cool though.

Dinner was good & I got to bed about 9.30pm, having to get up at 4.20am the next morning wasn't to appealing but doable. The beds sagged quite noticeably in the middle but I still had a good sleep. The bunks stacked up a but 3 high & there would have been at least 30 people in the mixed dorm. Our guide knocked on the door at the said hour & no one else happened to hear him so I had to get up form the second bunk (furtherest away form the door) & open it for him. It was quite a interesting thing to do in the dark :o)

We got ready in 20min then went down for breakfast. Breakfast here consists of pan (bread) so I had yoghurt, a apple & a snickers bar, very healthy me thinks!

Our guide then informed us that he wouldn't be taking us to Machu Picchu & that another guide would meet us there. Hmmm, ok not a prob, we tacked on to another group with 3 English guys in it, Sam, Rob (or bob...) & Johnny. The guys are at the end of 6 months traveling so it was cool to hear about where they'd been.

We made it to the sun gates about 7am (I think...) it was so full of cloud we couldn't see anything :( Walking to the sun gates was cool, it really felt like I was on top of the world or in some fairytail with the clouds beneath me with the mountain peaks so ruggered & jarged. Its truly a site to see! The other cool thing about the walk is that you can do it at your own pace so at times Id drop back & it was cool just to be there by myself appreciating the view.

Anyway, form the sun gates we proceeded down to where all the post cards shots are taken of Machu Picchu. Most of it was still under cloud but still looked amazing. From there we contained down to where we were supposed to meet our new guide. After waiting over a hour & me getting very hungry & buying a snickers bar - get this - for sl.7!!! Its said $2 on it & I was like cool but that's $2us... Very expensive! The guide finally turns up & says he has to wait another hour for some other people, needless to say we were a little pissed off so ended up tagging along with the group we were with in the morning. The rest of the people in my original group speak really good Spanish so went with the Spanish speaking guide & I stuck round with the English lads. It was really cool to hear about the history of Machu Picchu & just the vibe there is amazing! I hadn't realized that MP was actually abandoned as its believed that the Incas thought the Spanish would come to conquer the city as one only a 3 day walk away had been conqured. There's so much more but my brains just not up to it at the moment...

The boys & I walked back down to Agua Geallieanties & my knees really felt it after! 1hour of down hill steps! We had lunch at a local restaurant then went to the hot springs.

Caught the train back to cusco at 4pm & made it back about 8.30pm. Met a cool couple form Argentina with David. David´s lived in Ecuador for the last year & a half & his Spanish is fantastic so it was cool listening to them talk & actually understanding what they were saying! Even thought Id been up since 4.20am I wasn't tired. I still felt like I was on top of the world, & it almost felt like my chest wanted to explode - not the easiest thing to try & describe with out sounding like a idiot... Just the energy form MP was amazing...

Anyway, been travelers, everyone loves to have a few drinks... I met the English lads, David & Liz at Paddys about 10pm where we proceeded to drink, then head to mamma africas. I got home just after 2.30am & figured Id been awake just over 22hours. Needless to say I'm kinda tired today. Not to mention that I had think I'm allergic to Rum. I knew I had to get up early today so only had one drink when I got to the pub... Normal vodka & orange. But later I had a few sips of the boys rum & cokes. At 5am this morning I was throwing up... Doesn't quit make sense - have however concluded never to drink rum again. A similar thing happen last Monday but I managed not to throw up. Had never been that hung over before & now I can put it down to the rum cause I didn't even drink that much... Enough about that.

Set my alarm for 6 this morning - who needs more than 3.5hours sleep! But couldn't drag myself out of bed till after 7am. My bus was due to leave at 9.30am & I still hadn't packed. Of course cause I was feeling like crap I couldn't fit everything in my pack... Think I have to send some things home. I caught the bus with no prob, my host mum took me to the terminal which was great!

I had a conversation in Spanish with the lady that sat next to me on the bus about all sorts of stuff & was able to hold my own which was cool. Then I promptly fell asleep & missed all the wonderful scenery Peru has to offer... It was a bout a 7 hour bus trip. Got here about 4.30pm. Actually I still haven't eaten, maybe that'd help me to feel better... Id looked in the lonely planet & say the Nesther hostel so thought Id just grab a cab to Plaza de Arms then make my way there as things usually have a way of working out. I walked out of the bus terminal & there was a tout offering taxis who asked if I had a hostel I said no & he offered Nesther. Love it when things fall in to place. The hostals Sl.25per night ($9au approx) with a private bathroom & hot water from 6am - 8am which is cool.

Need to go find food & toilet paper. Can I just say guys, never take toilet paper for granted. Its not supplied in very many places here (Peru) which kinda sucks.

Looking into doing a over night trip to the floating islands, not tomorrow but the next day. Think tomorrow will be a day of rest & trying to get a fantastic price on the tour. The tout offered it to me for Sl.40 ($15au approx) & that includes the 2 days plus all food & the nights accommodation. How bad is that its only $15 but I want to get it cheaper... Will go to travel agents in the morning.

Well I know I've written heaps & I don't know how cause my brain isn't really functioning. Hope it makes sense & Ill try to down load photos soon. I took over 100 at MP!!

Puno, Monday 3rd May, 5.57pm

No more school!!!!

2004-05-01T04:46:00.000+08:00

Wow, its hard to believe that I've been here 4 weeks! Its gone so bloody quickly. This last week has flown by too. Way to much partying, too many late nights, then having to be alert for class in the morning. Not a good combination!

Ok. What have I been up too... Good question...

Friday afternoon (23/4) - I did the ruins above cusco that represent the head of the Puma with Deb, a girl I met from Perth. Tradition has it that Cusco city is the shape of a Puma. The name is pretty much pronounced Sexy Woman, cant remember the correct spelling. We bargained with a local to give us a bit of a tour of the site, for Sl10, the tour was pretty good so we gave him Sl15. At one stage he went to take us through this cave / it was pitch black. I didn't want to go through, very unlike me, we turned back. Don't think I trusted him... Friday night was a party night, met quite a few Aussies... Don't think I've met any Kiwis yet.

Saturday (25/04) Liz & Annilei were pretty tired but I really wanted to do the Pisac ruins so they came with me. We caught a local bus for Sl2 & it took about a hour to get there, it was a pretty decent ride. We ate at a local restaurant in Pisac then caught a taxi up to the ruins. The ruins are pretty cool. It was awesome to walk through & imagine that people used to live there & look out at that vista, its pretty dam amazing. It took us about 4 hours to walk through, around & down the mountain. Its quite a way up & it was interesting to walk back down. At one stage we took the wrong path & ended up almost sliding down the bank on our asses to get back to the path. Another thing that surprised me that I didn't like, was a few times on the way down the path got quite narrow with a sheer drop on one side, it freaked me a little... I'm getting soft in my old age!!! Saturday night... More going out :)

Sunday (26/04) Don't have a good recollection of Sunday... Think I got home about 4am so I pretty much slept in & had a lazy morning oh then Sunday afternoon my host family took me to a restaurant that looks over cusco for lunch. It was really cool. Tried something called Tamar that's made out of corn, its soooo nice! Have to try & get it again. Sunday night... Not sure what I did. Probably went to the student residenance & hung out...

The rest of this week, I really don't think I've accomplished much... I booked the 2 day Inca trail & I do that tomorrow. I don't have much faith in the people I've booked with, basically cause they don't speak much English & I don't speak much Spanish, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I have to meet them at the train station at 5.30am tomorrow so no going out for me tonight.

I booked my bus to Puno, for sl30, I leave Monday at 9.30am so I should get there about 4pm. So I should have enough time to find a hostel before dark. Its the local bus so it should be interesting...

I've been catching the bus to school by myself this week. Beginning to feel like a bit more of a local (not that I look it!!). I'm not noticing the differences here so much anymore. I think its good that I've spend so long here, if anything just to get used to it. My Spanish has improved & I'm talking a lot more & my homestay mum understands me & we have conversations. I didn't think Id picked up that much but to day we revised quite a bit & I was like - dam, I understand this!!!! HOW EXCITING. Its hard when people speak to you though, they speak so fast. I can read & understand & speak & be understood but I need to get used to people talking to me... I spose only time will tell :)

Oh, last night we decided to get dressed up & the girls convinced me to wear my heels. Ok word of warning, heels in cusco are not a good idea! Getting stuck in cobble stones & sliding everywhere is not a good look. Tempted to send the heels home, should have listened to you all when you told me not to bring them :)

um, what else.... I'm addicted to snickers bars! They cost sl3 each, just to give you a idea, I ate at a local restaurant on Wednesday night & had a whole meal of fried pork, pappas frittas & ensalada and it cost me sl3. Oh well what do you do! Don't really think I have that much else to report on... Well not that I can remember at the moment anyway...

Oh, my new bank card arrived on Wednesday & I was so pissed off cause I thought it didn't work. Looks like they've just put the account in the wrong place. If I select cheque instead of savings its fine! Go figure.

Ian - Thanks for letting me know what's happening there, its great to hear form you! I miss you all heaps & I can only imagine how quiet it is there! Shame you don't get to keep your office!

Love to all of you! Keep in touch, Rach.

Cusco, 30th April 2004, 3.46pm

More goings on

2004-04-23T07:53:00.000+08:00

This weeks been great. Are getting more used to been here now, are actually starting to eat 3 meals a day, are able to run up the stairs with out been puffed & my teeth are almost back to normal :o) All good things!!!

Monday 19th - School as per usual, then met up with Liz & Michael and we went for a walk around Cusco & settled on a restaurant above Plaza de Armas where I drank Coca de marte (herb tea) & had papas fritas (chips). Was a nice relaxing night.

Tuesday 20th - School as per usual, as a particle my teacher took me to the Inca museum. It was really interesting & it was cool to have here there to explain a few things to me. Was supposed to go with Liz to learn how to play the traditional Peruvian flute, but we were late & her friend had left. It ended up been a very interesting night tho. I hang out at the student residence (of the Spanish school where Liz, Michael & Analea live). Get this - a huge bottle of vodka costs $11.80soles - that's like $4au!!! Can you believe it!!!! Needless to say it was a very drunken night & fun was had by all. I was actually thinking about transferring to the student residence cause my family tends to do there own thing & it can get a tad lonely but I think Ill just settle for crashing the student residence when I'm bored & be happy with that. I've only got just over another week here so its not that long & my family is really nice.

Wednesday 21st - School... Met up with a Crystal (US), Dan (Israel), Michael (Oz) & Analea (Can) about 8.30pm & firstly went to a Irish pub where we met a couple of other aussies, James & Jen, who were pretty cool. After which we went to Mama Africas which was the pub we went to Saturday night. They always seem to have excellent music & the place was pumping. Had to tear myself away at 2am was soooo tempted to do a all nighter (we've agreeded that'll be Saturday night!). Glad I didn't it was so hard to concentrate in class this morning! Walking to mama africas was interesting to say the least. Once again you have a million people trying to get you to go to their club plus people trying to sell you something. This is all normal, what wasn't normal was that the shoe shine guys were trying to hug me & kiss me, at one stage a boy jumped off a step to hug me & scared the shit out of me! I'm glad I was with a group. It was all harmless so don't go getting worried for my safety. I've been in the plaza by myself a million times at night & nothings happened it was all in fun. Just interesting.

Thursday 22nd - We had to run for the bus this morning. I'm sure it would have been quite comical for anyone watching & quit hard for the bus to miss - 2 white girls (Crystal & I) running down the road. We were lucky & the bus waited so we weren't late for class. Had a sleep this afternoon :o) I'm starting to love my nana naps! At home I never would have been abel to sleep at night but here I don't have a problem! Did my washing this arvo too. Think that pretty much brings me upto date... Email me or comment if your reading!!! Would love to hear what's happening at home or wherever the hell you are

what's next....That's what I'm trying to figure out. Tomorrow - local ruins, Saturday will do Sacred Valley then Sunday will be spent recovering form Saturday night. Next week, I think I might buckle down & study, haven't really studied that much at all this week... Will book the 2 day Inca trail for next Saturday & stay a extra night in Agua Callienties (I cant spell in English so I certainly cant spell in Spanish, k), the town at MachuPicchu, it means hot water as there are hot springs there. So maybe on the following tuestday Ill either head to Arequipa or straight to Puno then make my way to LaPaz (Bolivia) then all the way down to Chile. I have to be in Santiago by the 21st May for my flight to Brazil so Ill see how I go. I thought I had a bit more time so hopefully 3 weeks will be enough... Ill see how I go :o)

More on cusco:

* Everything on these PCs is in Spanish :) & the keyboards are a little different so its taken me a while to build up my typing speed again.

* I wash my clothes by hand, it really makes me appreciate the washing machine :o) My family have a maid that comes in & does everything but I feel bad making her wash my clothes too.

* I have to turn the hot water on for my shower in the morning 15min before I want to have my shower so the waters hot.

* you're not supposed to put toilet paper in toilet here cause of the sewage system... I keep forgetting so are probably going to bring down the whole system single handedly...

* My Spanish teacher is so cool. I feel no where near as pressured & think I'm picking up a lot more, her English is really good which helps with explaining stuff. I haven't paid for solo classes but don't think that there's any one else at the same level as me which is kinda cool cause I have my own teacher.

* I'm enjoying myself but are starting to get ichy feet a little. One week left here then Ill start moving & the adventure will really begin!!!!!!

Cusco 22nd April 6.53pm

Cucsco - General Stuff I've Noticed

2004-04-19T09:01:00.000+08:00

* To me it seems very, very polluted. The cars are quite a lot older & spew out clouds of smoke which adds to it been a the city been dirty. At the end of the day my clothes have dirty crease marks on them.

* When driving they LOVE to use their horn for any any reason at all & not many of them know how to use indicators.

* Taxis are so cheap $2sl($0.80au), I'm been so lazy & usually catch them. I'm a 40min walk form the city centre.

* Have caught the local bus (which can either be a 20year old bus or what wed call a normal van) which costs $0.50sl. This in its self is an experience to say the least. There is a person that hangs out the door as they pull up to a stop who yells out all the destinations so fast that I cant understand them, I've always had to go with someone. Then they cram the bus so full of people that everyone gets squashed. They aren't the cleanest things either but its cheap so Ill probably do it this week too :o)

* How funny is this, I think I'm losing weight! My pot belly has gone & is now flat. Go figure.
Breakfast is usually fresh fruit juice which has been made for me, then cereal, & maybe youghut with fresh fruit then coca tea.
Lunch can either start with soup, which is either a cream or clear, or salad of some sort. The clear soup has meat, potatoes & veggies in it & both soups or salad are really really filling. Next out comes the main which is a meat dish with rice & or potatoes - think I've managed to finish the second course 2 or 3 times since I've been here. Then out comes desert which is usually some kind of fruit & is usually really yummy.
Dinner, needless to say I haven't really felt like dinner. When I catch up with friends Ill have a plate of chips, I think last night was the first night I've ordered a proper meal.

* It amazes me how just about everything shuts down for 2 or 3 hours for lunch & most people go home.

* Shops are open really late & are so cheap. I'm been so good & not buying stuff - I want to though!

there's heaps more stuff but once again I'm at a internet cafe & must get moving.

* Oh & regardless if my hair was brown or black Id still stick out like a sore thumb!

xoxoxoxox to you all.

Had 2 rush off yesterday so here's the rest...

2004-04-19T08:39:00.000+08:00

Friday 16th - School as per normal. Forgot to mention that I went back to group classes Thursday. The teacher is so much better & actually speaks some English so I got heaps more out of the classes. Was in with another girl form Australia - Debra from Perth. After class decided to miss out on family lunch so a group of us, Deb, Crystal (US) & Vince (France) went to a local restaurant for lunch. I had chicken & chips :o) how Peruvian I hear you say.... The chickens here are huge!
After lunch we did the tourist thing & went to temple de sole & the museum. The temple is pretty amazing. They actually built a catholic church on top of the Inca temple & its really cool to see the Inca with the colonial. It was just a really peaceful place to visit. Didn't really do anything Friday night just relaxed & watched TV (the English channel!)

Saturday 17th - Happy Birthday Mum!!!! & Nana if ur reading. Went to the markets with Home stay family & brought a watch for $35sl. Then we went for a bit of a drive round the city. I love seeing the differences.
Then I went out for dinner then on to the discotecas (clubs) last night. Now I have to explain something about how it works here. If you're not a local & you walk down the street, you can get anywhere up to 5 people approaching you at a time trying to get you a) to buy postcards, lollies, smokes finger puppets or anything else you can imagine or b) trying to get you in to their restaurant or shop. Last night I'm sure we made a all time record. There was a group of about 8 of us & we walked down gringo alley to go to a restaurant for dinner. We got surrounded by I swear at least 15 -20 people trying to get us into their restaurants, it was a little overwhelming to say the least but all part of the experience. Dinner was good, Mexican, although their tacos certainly didn't look like the tacos I'm used to.
The clubs are very much made for the tourists & if, once again your not a local, each & every club has people on the street offering you all sorts of things to get you into their club. The best one is the free drink. So the night starts off jumping form club to club. Some of them were really nice others really tackie. We ended up staying at Mamma Africas. All western music with the odd salsa thrown in. It was a really good night & I didn't end up getting home until 5am...

Sunday 18th - So needless to say I slept most of today. We did go out for lunch, usual 3 courses, made me want to explode once again. Just chilled & listened to music this afternoon then thought I better do something :o)

Settled in... Now :o)

2004-04-18T05:45:00.000+08:00

Cusco. Local date 17 April 4.45pm
I'm starting to feel heaps more confident with my Spanish & are understanding heaps more & can have very basic conversations.

The walk to tipon last Saturday was great but well just about killed me ;) The whole walking up steep hills with my asthma didn't really work that well. I made it to the top any way & the ruins were pretty cool. The Incas set up this whole irrigation system that's quite impressive. I took heaps of photos, it was just a really beautiful place.

I spent most of Sunday recovering but went to the black markets then town with my homestay family & watched the Easter processions. The dancers were amazing & their outfits were so colorful & interesting. There were some even dressed as bears, it was a pretty hot day so I felt quite sorry for them. We had lunch at a local restaurant (the usual 3 courses). Lunch is usually about 2pm or 3pm. After that I went home & relaxed a bit then met up with Dan at Plaza de Armuz, Gemma bailed on us cause she had the trek the next day (5.30am) and was feeling pretty tired.

Monday - School in the morning as per usual, then salsa, drinks with friends - this time at a English pub.

Tuesday - Read sore teeth entry below :o)

Wednesday - Felt like shit, teeth v sore, went to school in the morning, went home had lunch, went to bed (at 3 in the afternoon) slept for a few hours. Woke up read my book, went back to sleep.

Thursday - Teeth STILL sore, felt ok though. Went to school, went home had lunch, met up with 4 friends & did a heap of sight seeing. It was really good went to San blas, the main church - its amazing the detail that goes into their churches. Its more like a art museum that a church. It kinda feels wrong that so many tourists are traipsing around what's supposed to be a spiritual place but it really is amazing to see! Went to a museum as well then met up with another group of people went for dinner & out to a club, opps sorry discotecha ;o) It was a really good night.

Ok really do have to go now....

Love to you all!!!!!!! Miss everyone like crazy but are actually having a good time.

Sore teeth!!!

2004-04-18T05:25:00.000+08:00

Cusco. Local date 17 April, 4.26pm

That's right, I have sore teeth.

This last week has been interesting to say the least & I think I've been a tad stressed & clenching my jaw shut as I slept on Tuesday night has resulted in sore teeth :o)

Last week, I discovered that my purse that I had about $50us dollars & my key card in had gone missing... Anyway to cut a really long boring story short I had to arrange for mum to have power of attorney over my accounts so I can get a new key card etc... There in, is where I encountered a few problems - which seem quite comical, now.

Problem no. 1 - it was Easter & everything was pretty much shut down here form Thursday & at home in oz it was shut down Friday to Monday. Not that big a deal, just have to wait - this I could handle.

Problem no. 2 - Not speaking Spanish very well & using your Spanish English dictionary to explain to your Spanish teacher that you need a public notary to sign the forms that your lawyer sent from Australia - not easy but doable.

Problem no. 3 - explaining to the public notary who speaks no English what needs to be done but them not understanding & only doing half of what needed to be done - umm, a tad frustrating but still ok.

Problem no. 4 - Asking your homestay parents if they know a lawyer that speaks English so they can complete the last part of the paper work. Homestay mum translating doc then spending close to a hour at the public notarys office asking for them to sign knowing what the doc now says cause of the translation. This was touch & go they still didn't want to sign & homestay mum had to sign her life away too - I felt bad for taking up so much of homestay mums time (most of afternoon) brought her a box of chocolates. I felt really frustrated cause I couldn't explain myself & very isolated. Still ok at this point though.

Problem no. 5 - Tried to fax document & stupid technology not working - very very frustrating!!! Felt bad for putting mum (my real mum) out cause she had to stand around & wait for fax & it didn't end up coming... By this stage finding it hard to hold it together.

Problem no. 6 - Tried to call the bank (reverse charge) to ask if a faxed copy of doc would actually do any good. Stupid international operator in Oz was engaged. Tried to get through for over a hour (this is at midnight by the way & I`d already had a pretty shit day).

End result - I cried, went to sleep & must have clenched my teeth so hard in my sleep that they've been sore for the last 4 days! Almost back to normal now though.

Problem no. 7 - Called the bank when I woke up, I got through thank god, & they then informed me that even though my mum had power of attorney she still couldn't put a new pin on my replacement card... Umm my response, "Why in the hell did the person I spoke to last Thrusday tell me that this was the only way to get my new card with in the 3 remaining weeks I had left here!". Lets just say I was a little pissed off & gave him attidue. End result he's sending a new key card to my mums place & she's going to take the card & every single piece of documentation in with her to hopefully get my new card issued so she can courier it to me before I move on to Bolivia at the end of the month...

I sent the power of attorney docs by courier on Wednesday which will take 4 working days, costing $25us. Not to bad. Forgot to include a request for the bank to let mum enter my new pin number... Tried to send that yesterday express post - would have cost me $30au. So over it all now , sent it by normal mail will take 10days....

Feels good to have had a rant. I've been up to heaps of cool stuff too. Need to write about that but think I have to go....

I've been in Cusco 5 days

2004-04-10T09:25:00.000+08:00

8.25pm Fri 9 April

Time really does fly!! Its hard to believe that ivy almost been here a week. Don't have that much time left at the internet cafe so Ill just do a quickie run down on what ivy been up to.

- Spanish school is a little harder than I thought it would be, the teachers don't speak any English so its a bit hard when they're trying to explain something & you don't get it... Was in a class with 2 other people, Gemma (Australian but has lived in Canada for the last year) & Dan (whose form Israel). They're both really cool except they both understand & speak a lot more Spanish than me. Decided to change form a group class to one on one classes & started them on Wednesday. I'm understanding a lot more but my new teacher doesn't speak English either so all I can say is thank god for the Spanish dictionary I brought.

Tuesday night - Went to salsa lessons at the school with Gemma & Dan. It was a lot of fun. I haven't laughed so much in ages. Then we went to a neat little place & chilled out with the group of people form the salsa lessons.

Wednesday night - Met up with Gemma & walked around the shops for a bit. Brought a top that'll be great for Africa & the middle East. He wanted $25 soles for it but ended up taking $20sl. A 100% cotton long sleaved good quality top for $7.50au, not bad me thinks. Everything here is so cheap. The prices are pretty much the same as they are at home but with the advantage of the exchange rate its just so cheap!

Yesterday - Easter is pretty big here & they have both Thursday & Friday off. Yesterday was this huge lunch (bigger than normal) it was something like 12 courses as opposed to the normal 3. They said it was about the last supper... Basically how it works with lunch is that I finish school at 1pm & make my way home (so does everyone else, they all go home for lunch!) then the food starts coming out. Like I said its usually 3 courses consisting of soup, a main & desert - this is everyday! They think I don't eat a lot cause the soup usually fills me up. Anyway yesterday was 3 soups, 2 mains & however many deserts. I tried all of them which was cool & I couldn't eat a couple of them cause they had wheat in them (thank god). By then end of it I felt like I was going to explode :o)

Last night - I met Gemma & Dan about 8, went & grabbed some food then met up with some of Dans friends, that he met in Bolivia, at a Irish Pub (that's right Irish pub in Peru!). Ended up going to a Discotech (club). It was a really good night & I was happy to sleep in this morning cause it was a bit of a late one :o)

Today - my host family are so cool. They're like would you like to go to the country side today? I was like that'd be good (in broken Spanish & English as per most conversations). They took me to the markets in Pisca then to Calca where they were getting ready for the Easter procession that was this afternoon. They make these banners on the ground out of crushed flowers of all different colours. Some of them were pretty amazing. Then we went on to Urubamba & had a walk around there. It was pretty cool. I didn't see any ruins or anything like that but it was neat to see the towns & the sacred valley is pretty dam breath taking. I took a heap of photos.

Anyway must go. Having a quite night tonight. Doing a hike tomorrow to Tipon -haven't read up about it yet but I'm sure it'll be good. Lets just hope I'm not to unfit! ;o)

More on Lima

2004-04-05T21:00:00.000+08:00

8am Sun 4 April local time.

At present I'm in the airport again, this time waiting for my flight to Cusco. I have a much better impression of the apart in daylight , they're refurbishing it. Yesterday afternoon was great! It seemed like it lasted forever. I went on the city tour as planned & thankfulness got to see quite a bit of Lima. It would have been interesting to see some of the poorer parts areas though but we didn't eve go near them. The places we did go to were; Waka Hula, which is really old temple ruins that were built before the Incas time. Cathedral of Lima, main square, the church of San Francisco & Catacombes & San Isidro. There were heaps more places but I cant remember the names. My favorite was the catacombes which are underneath San Francisco. It was really interesting to have a look & see all the bones & how they buried their people. You actually get to see all the bones & grave structures which was cool.

Central lima is nowhere near as clean as miraflores but still pretty reasonable. There were heaps more beggars & people trying to sell you stuff. I ended up buying a painting for 15.50sl. The tour finished about 6pm so I went back to my room & crashed for a hour of so. I was suppose to meet up with a couple of American guys but they had a change of plans which involved a really late night & I was pretty tired & had a early flight... I ended up getting some food & went to the night markets. Dinner only cost me 12sl for a huge meal, just under $5au. I looked through the shops too. You can buy tops & jumpers from 5sl - 20sl ($1.80au-$7.5au) so tempted but I'm been good :o) The money thing - easiest way for me to work it out is 1sl = $0.38au or 10sl = $3.78au. Thus far I've spent $165au since I've left oz which isn't to bad. Oh, that's not including the duty free perfume but I got that in oz so it doesn't count :o)

Cusco....

2004-04-05T07:30:00.000+08:00

6.30am Mon 5.04.04

The flight here was great, it only took 50 min. Most of the way I looked out the window at the mountain ranges, they're amazing. It was interesting to see the transformation between the dryness of the coast & the green the closer we got to Cusco.

I got picked up at the airport & dropped off at my host families house. The house is really nice & in a really good area. I can look out my bedroom window & see the park next door & the mountains in the background. My host family is really nice & with the little bit of English that the mother speaks & my tiny, tiny bit of Spanish were doing ok. They have a 11 year old son (Diego) who speaks pretty good English which is great. I'm asking him what all the words mean in Spanish but the problem is remembering them & my mind is pretty much like a sive at the moment....

I start Spanish school today.

Yesterday I went to mass with the family, the churches here are amazing. After church they drove me around & showed me the city. Cusco is really beautiful, I love it! The buildings are so old!

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch , it was really quaint & had Inca stone work on the back wall which was pretty cool. I wasn't really that hungry, so had steamed fish. We we got home I was feeling quite tires so had a sleep. Then I went downstairs & had some coca tea, wasn't hungry so didn't eat.

Some of their friends came over & it was quite interesting just listening to the conversation, before it just used to sound like blah, blah, blah but now I can pick out the odd word. Then we all played cards. Ocho Loco - crazy eights. It was a lot of fun. Diego helped me out.

They really liked the presents I gave them & loved my photos of Oz.

don't think that my sleeping patterns are quite right yet. I woke up a few times during the night then was wide awake at 6am...

I start school today...

Made it to Lima in one piece!

2004-04-04T01:15:00.000+08:00

Wow, what can I say. Firstly local date & time 3 April 1pm.

Going through customs & stepping in to the arrival lounge here in Lima blew my mind! There were so many people making lots of noise & every second person offering me a ride/taxi, all in Spanish of course so I didn't understand a word! It didn't take me long to find the sign with my name on it & a lovely man called Mireno, who spoke very little English, drove me through Lima to the Olimpus hostel in Miraflores. I still cant get over the amount of people or the number of cars that were at the airport, not to mention the noise! I think the airport itself is either been refurbished or a new ones been build cause it was pretty much a tin shed, not quite what I expected.

The hostel I'm staying at is really nice, the people are lovely but don't speak much English. I'm picking up more Spanish than I thought I would already. It makes it hard when no one understands what you're saying or what you want, i.e a day tour of Lima - note to self need to buy a more comprehensive English-Spanish dictionary. I've got a single room, which I was very thankful for last night. I basically got changed, washed my face & crashed out at about 1am local time. I woke up at 6.30am so only 6.5 hours sleep but its all good, just means Ill sleep well tonight.

Marino, the guy who picked me up at the airport, was going to the beach today with a few other guys form the hostel & offered for me to go with them. I was tempted just to see the beaches (I didn't realize that I'm staying 2 blocks form the beach anyway) but decided that unless I did a day tour Id miss out on most of lima cause I'm only here for 1 day. I've booked into a 4 hour tour for $20us that picks me up this afternoon. This morning I Went for a bit of a walk about to explore Miraflores. I love the feeling of knowing you're not going to bump into anyone you know & everything been completely new. The hardest thing to get used to though - looking the right way when crossing the road i.e right then left not the other way round like at home. I just about got myself killed (just joking!).

Firstly I walked down to the tourist area where you can look out over the beach & ocean from the cliffs. Its cool, quite different to the landscapes that I've seen before. After that I just went for a walk up the main street, stopped in at the bank & changed some traveler's cheques to soles. I'm not confidant with the money yet. I don't have anything to compare prices to so don't know if I'm been ripped off or not so I haven't brought anything - not that I need to but the urge is always there ;o) I sat in the park for a bit then went in to a church. It was beautiful, the stained glass windows the high arches & statues at the front, once again quite different.

Umm better hurry up cause my times running out. Things I've noticed about Lima thus far:

-There are a huge number of beggars or people trying to sell you something. On the way form the airport the car was approached twice & I noticed so many more waiting by the side of the road for the lights to change. I was also approached today by a little boy selling lollies, then a old lady & I was like no, no, no & kept walking away. The little boy then came up to me a second time so I gave him a small coin to get rid of him. Then when I was sitting in the park & guy who spoke some English started shining my shoes & he's like for free, for free - whatever. I knew he was going to charge me but it was cool to have a conversation with someone who spoke English. At the end I asked him how much & he's like 20 soles - I said its to much & gave him 10. Cause I don't know the money I haven't worked out how much I've been ripped off by yet :o)

-This area is very very clean, every where I look there's a Gardner or street cleaner.

-There are police men everywhere. I saw one with what looked like a machine gun earlier. I thought it would either make me feel safer or freaked me out - but it did neither really...

Well better go, need to eat before my tour plus I want to check out the exchange form Australian dollars to Peruvian Soles.

I'm so happy to be here!!!!!

I´m in SOUTH AMERICA!!!!

2004-04-03T01:17:00.000+08:00

Oh my god. I´m here I´m really here! I may be in transit at the airport in Chile but hey I´m still in a completely different country & that´s a tad exciting!!!! I managed to get a few hours sleep on the plane so aren´t actually feeling that tired.

The flight took about 16ish hours. I got here at about 2.30am Sydney time considering we left Sydney about 10.30 I think that makes it a pretty long flight. Local time now is 1.35pm, on Friday 2nd of April, so it´s the middle of the day. I wondered around the airport for about 20 minutes but there wasn´t much to do so decided to shell out for the VIP guest waiting lounge. It cost $15us but I can´t think of anything worse than sitting on thoes crapy seats in the departure lounge for 8 hours waiting for my flight. At least here I get to use super fast internet, take a shower (which I´ll do shortly) & get free food, bottled water & drinks :o)

It only hit me as I walked through the passengers only departure area in Sydney what I´m doing... I felt very much alone... I´m over that now & are just plain EXCITED!!!

Thoughts running through my head while waiting to get on the plane in Sydney: This is it!, I´m doing it, I can´t believe I´m doing it...

Ummm, whatelse... Sat next to a nice enough guy on the plane - except he had bad breath... not so nice. Watched 3 movies, ate some food & slept. The airline was Lan Chile & I have to say they have the coolest personal touch TV screens for you to watch movies & play games on. It´s cool too cause you can decide when you want to watch a movie, so everyone can watch something different at the same time. Quite impressive I thought!

Well don´t really have anything else to say at the moment, must be a bit sleepier than I thought. Think I´ll go for a shower then watch some tv :o)

Busy day

2004-03-29T20:00:00.000+08:00

I got my last Rabies shot & the flu shot this morning.

Met up with my wonderful friend Kate who's form London & has been traveling round Oz, I met her in Adelaide back in December & we've been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time together in the last few months. It was so good to see her again! She's just arrived back in Sydney after doing the East Coast & is off to New Zealand on Thursday. It's really exciting to think that we're going to meet up in 6 months time in London :o)

I also got a few little things that I needed like power plug converters, thongs/jandles/flip flops or what ever you want to call them, a pegless clothes line, travel laundry detergent etc. Then went & got my travelers cheques & some US cash. The exchange rate wasn't as good as it was 4 weeks ago but what can you do! I got $3k worth of US & it cost me just over $4k Australian so that's not too bad I spose...

Also managed to catch up with a girlfriend form work for a quick coffee. So it was quite a good day & I got to check a number of things off my to do list :o)

The Wedding.

2004-03-28T20:27:00.000+08:00

Wow, it's hard to believe that it was 3 months ago that I decided that I wanted to going overseas but that I couldn't leave because I didn't want to miss the wedding. Well now the wedding's over & it was fantastic! I loved been a bridesmaid & been there for my friend, it was a perfect day.

The photographer has already posted some of the photos form yesterday on his website

5 more sleeps till I'm off. I've already had to say good bye to some really good friends & it's been a bit harder that I thought it would be. This whole week has pretty much been booked up with good byes as well...

I'm hoping that I get to pop into work to say my last good byes but some how I don't think I'm going to make it over there. If you're reading guys, big hugs to you all!!!

It's gotten to the stage where unless I write things down on my list they're not going to get done. My brain is officially in overload ;o)

Airports...

2004-03-22T15:29:00.000+08:00

... Well I suppose I better get used to them! I booked a 9pm flight cause I'd though that I'd need the time to get back to Melbourne from my friends place, I didn't end up going to my friends place so now I'm trying to kill some time on very expensive internet usage at the airport... :o) I spose I can't help it that I'm now becoming addicted to updating.

Yesterday was great. Shopping on Bridge Rd, followed by chi late', followed by great places to go out! Who would have thought that Sunday night in Melbourne would go off. Rather tired today as I got in a little late then had to check out of the backpackers at 10am this morning.

Tammy is great, it was really good to catch up with her. She's hoping to go overseas towards the end of this year so hopefully we'll catch up somewhere around the globe. I was just thinking all the people that I've caught up with in the last few days are all people I met while traveling round Australia, how cool is that!!!

today has been rather uneventful, with nothing else to do (I couldn't be bothered doing the tourist thing) I hit the shops in the city... bad idea, I brought a jacket & a top but considering that I tried on so many clothes so I'm rather proud that I only shelled out for 2 items :o) & they weren't that expensive either so it's all good!

My view on Melbourne - The clubs go off, the shopping's good, the weather can't make up it's mind & I love the vibe of St Kilda, plus trams are cool!!!

It's been great catching up with my friends. I did the tourist thing last time I was here so this was basically just a really good break before I head off :o) I'm now RELAXED.

Oh travel agent called, my passport with all my visa's is back & the Spain & France eurail tick is only $517 not $700 as I thought it was going to be. Still have to get travelers cheques & I need to rethink the clothes I'm taking with me. I don't think I'm capable of going back to basics... Need at least a few trendy clothes...

Melbourne's still good.

2004-03-21T09:51:00.000+08:00

Left my friend Jen's place yesterday & made my way to St Kilda. Wasn't sure where the backpackers hostels were so had a bit of a lovely walk with my back pack & now have a blister on the sole of my foot, better now than later I say. Had a great afternoon, spent some time at the beach & then met up with my friend Mal. He brought his Kite Ski with him. He's still new at it so we set it all up & when the kite was about to go up, it had a mind of it's own & Mal got dragged a little & the kite ended up across the road in a tree. I think it was a bit windy yesterday. Some of the guys on the water were getting huge air, it looked cool.

Saying at a backpackers called Jackson's Manner which is quite good, was going to stay at the Coffee Palace across the road but didn't even bother going in, it looked like a bit of a dump. Have got some cool girls in my room which is good.

Went to some great pub / clubs last night with Mal & one of his mates & had a great night. I'm now waiting to meet up with a girl that I met when I was in Adelaide, she's working here now before moving on. I think we're going to the markets. Must remember not to spend money :o)

Melbourne

2004-03-18T12:55:00.000+08:00

I arrived yesterday morning.

I caught a 8.45am plane form Sydney & was here by 10am. It was a really good flight. I 'love' the take off where you feel like you're gonna lose you're stomach :o) Maybe that's why I like roller coasters so much.

Anyway, I made it form the airport to my friends place with out to much hassle, catching the airport shuttle, then a train & connecting bus. Melbourne public transport is a little different than Sydneys but it's all good. I was surprised, I got on the train at Spencer Street Station & changed trains at Flinders Street Station, the train that I got off just sat there. One of the guys I was talking to said it'd be there for like 10 minutes & that it's a usual occurrence. No one seemed pissed off about it either... In Sydney, I was on the train the other day & there was some sort of medical emergency at one of the stations, our train stopped for just over 5 minutes & everyone was pissed off. It's a little different...

Before I forget - note to self: "when carrying a very large, heavy backpack for an extended period of time (longer that 10 minutes) must wear hiking boots cause ankles feel like they're going to snap!" The shoulders are fine it just killed the ankles. I even looked like a bit of a retard & decided to see if I could run for the train with my pack on & was able to do so (for the duration of 3 minutes).

Tested out my sleeping bag & sleep sheet properly last night - it was a bloody cold night but I was super cozy & had to leave the zip open.

Quick backtrack - went to yet another active outdoor shop again on Tuesday, brought proper thermal top & leggings, they're super sexy... Not, but will keep me warm. Also got some hiking shorts & my pac safe wire mesh thing. Wondering if I should buy a proper parker. So far I have 2 thermal tops & my flease thing that's supposed to be better than a normal one... Maybe I'll just buy stuff when I get there...

2nd Rabies Shot

2004-03-15T14:07:00.000+08:00

Dr Appt. 11.30am
Very boring post. I just had the second shot... Nothing exciting to report.

Looked at a whole heap of the outdoors shops again. I swear they're getting to know me along the strip (there's like 8 or 9 of them all in a row behind Town Hall). Have decided that I need to buy a backpack Pac-safe thing. It's basically a wire mesh type thing that goes over your backpack to secure it & everything inside it. $129 dollars later... I think it'll be worth it though :o)

3 weeks to go!

2004-03-12T17:51:00.000+08:00

Where to start. I'm now officially homeless. Moved everything to mums place on Wednesday, everything fits nicely btw & spent yesterday & today doing bits & pieces & cleaning. The move wasn't as awful as I thought it was going to be. I hired a moving company so 4.5 hours & $400 later it was all done.

I've managed to fit everything into my pack, although I think I'm going to do another cull in the next few days... I'm now living out of my pack with limited clothes :o(

Crashing at Mums place then I'm off to Melbourne on Wednesday.

Last Saturday I went in to Kathmandu & brought my sleeping bag, silk sleep sheet & CD case. I ended up taking the sleeping bag back on Wednesday cause it didn't fully zip open like I thought it would and exchanged the 'globetrotter' bag instead. It's a 3 season so hopefully it'll keep me warm enough... It was $100 cheaper which was a bit of a bonus too but it's still a $500 bag, thank god for the 25% club member discount is all I can say.

Oh I figured out I've spent about $600 on vaccinations so far so I took all my receipts into Medicare & my private health cover & got $270 back which is great.

Money is now precious - I'm watching my bank account go down, when I feel like been generous I have to keep reminding myself that there's no longer money coming in! Now it's time to live in true backpacker style & become a cheap skate...

Rabies

2004-03-08T14:00:00.000+08:00

Dr Appt 5pm
The first of the Rabies shots - It wasn't to bad. Except it made my arm tingle a little :o) No side affects. There are 3 shots in total. Next one will be on the 15th.

Busy packing at the moment - it's all happening!!!

Zambesi Macpac

2004-02-27T07:36:00.000+08:00

I brought my 70lt pack last night (20lt day pack, 50lt main pack).

Now I've just got to see how much I can cram into it :o)

It only ended up costing $380 which was great! $90 less than I thought.

Yellow Fever

2004-02-26T14:30:00.000+08:00

Dr Appt 5.30pm
The Yellow Fever shot - it didn't even hurt going in & they make you sit & wait for half a hour to see if you're going to have any reaction. I had none so it's all good :o)

Comments

2004-02-24T12:55:00.000+08:00

Ok, my friend Adam has added a new function to this page for me.

Basically, you see the little word that says "Comment" at the bottom of this post (entry)? Well you can just click on it to leave me a nice little note.

Please do not think that while I'm traveling that I don't want to hear form you BECAUSE I DO!!!! & if you can't be bothered emailing me, a little note here will suffice :o)

It's getting closer...

2004-02-23T05:56:00.000+08:00

Two weeks of work left. Started packing up my apartment on the weekend & going through all the stuff I'm going to sell. Who would have thought I could fit so much in to my tiny little apartment!

Cleaned out mums garage yesterday & are getting all set for the garage sale next weekend.

This weeks going to be flat out between dentist appointments, doctors appointments, YHA travel seminar, organising the garage sale & generally trying to fit everything in...

Visas & stuff

2004-02-19T06:21:00.000+08:00

Popped in to the travel agent yesterday & my working visa for the UK had come back. Have now sent off for the Kenya one & then I only have 3 more that I need to get before I leave the country.

I also booked in for my yellow fever shot next week. Still undecided about the Rabies shots... What the hell I'm already spending so much money, what's another $300...

My Itinerary

2004-02-18T06:17:00.000+08:00

Beginning of April:
Leave Sydney fly to Lima, Peru (via Santiago)
Then to: Cusco, Peru for home stay & Spanish school, 4 weeks. Do the Inca trail & local ruins. Amazon?

End April - End May:
Overland from Peru to Bolivia via Lake Titicaca, Salt flats. From Salt flats overland to Chilli

End May:
Fly Santiago, Chile to Rio, Brazil

End May - End June:
Overland Brazil to Argentina. Maybe to Amazon?. Iguazu Falls

End June:
Fly Buenos Aires to Lisbon, Portugal (4 days in Lisbon)

End June:
Fly Lisbon to Johannesburg.

Beginning July:
Tour overland form Johannesburg to Nairobi including:
South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania & Kenya.
http://www.acacia-africa.com/overland_eae32.htm

Nairobi to Cairo

Beginning August:
Tour over land from Cairo to Istanbul including:
Egypt, Jordan, Syria & Turkey
http://www.kumuka.co.uk/MEasttour.asp?t=ME7&d=ME7.pdf

Mid September:
Fly Istanbul to Madrid

Mid Sep - Mid Oct:
Overland Spain, Morocco (?), Spain & France

Mid Oct:
Fly Paris to London

I'm planning on spending anywhere from 6 to 12 or even 18 months working in the UK before I continue my travels.

Then the rest of Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Nepal & India but don't have a set itinerary for this yet though...

Typhoid & Meningitis.

2004-02-16T15:30:00.000+08:00

Dr Appt 4.30pm
The Meningitis shot stings going in but my right arm feels ok.
The Typhoid shot just feels like some one hit my arm with a 4 by 2. It's 10 x worse than the tetanus shot.

ed: had some sort of reaction to one of the shots, or maybe both... Felt sick, headachy & got the chills. It only lasted 5 or 6 hours & after a sleep I was fine :o)

First lot of Shots

2004-02-10T15:00:00.000+08:00

Dr Appt 12pm
Hepatitis A & B shot - my arm feels little sore but no big deal
Tetanus & Diphtheria shot - feels like someone punched me in the arm & it's a bit sore.
Polio - it's taken orally, who would have known. Didn't taste to bad, just a sugary liquid.

Oz Trip

2004-02-10T07:25:00.000+08:00

Just thought it'd be good to have a record of what I did on my Oz trip so I've just posted all the emails that I sent while I was away :o)

This is it, the last & final up date...

2003-12-19T23:34:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys,

Well, in about 5 hours I'll be at home.... So this is it, the last & final update you'll get - well from this trip anyway :o)

Ok, time to test the memory again. I had to up date my travel journal yesterday afternoon, I haven't done it since Kakadu (2ish weeks ago..?) & it was rather
hard to remember what I'd been up to - I think I'm just going to have to go back through all the emails I've written you :)

Tuesday we did the great ocean road. It was pretty cool, lot's more rocks (or what was once land) that look impressive! The 12 apostles, London bridge, bay of islands plus a few others I can't remember the names of. When you see them in photos they look cool, but in real life - soooooo much better! Then on the way to Melbourne we stopped at bells beach & a few other bays on the way.

Tuesday night I stayed at the YHA that was about a 20min walk from the city so
needless to say I changed accommodation & ended up staying at a place right in the heart of the city :)

Wednesday it reached about 38oC, it was just a bit hot & not what I expected of Melbourne! I did a city sights tour which was ok but was really for grandmas & grandpas so I wouldn't recommend. At least I still got to see the sights. Then in the afternoon went to the dandagong ranges(I can't even remember if that's what they're called or how to spell it - I'm sure some one will correct me - Dave, Ian?? ;)

The tour was advertised as "walk through the ranges see waterfalls etc", once again for grandpas & grandmas we drove for about a hour & a half & got off the bus for 30min & fed some birds / parrots (which were pretty cool I must admit) then got back on the bus & that was it, not really worth the trip.

Hit the casino Wednesday night with a girl I met in Adelaide & I didn't lose any money which is always a good thing :)

Thursday, having a bit of trouble with this one... I know I slept in (that's the great thing about staying more than one night in a place - you don't need to check out early!) & that it was cold & pissed down with rain. I think I pretty much spent the day shopping - quite proud of my self actually, I only brought 2 tops that didn't cost a fortune - yes, it took a lot of self control!

Thursday evening (5.30) I took a tour to Phillip Island to watch the penguin parade. It's amazing how tiny they are! You're not allow to take photo's of them cause the flash blinds them. After they made there way across the beach I was watching them from the board walk & this girl goes to her friend "I just have to take a photo - the flash won't go off" so she takes the photo & guess what - the flash goes off. I must say I wasn't impressed! but what can ya do...?

Friday I went to the Queen Vic markets, they're pretty big & have all sorts. Walked round the city a bit more, Melbourne's pretty easy to get around. I met up with a friend I made form Surfers last night & we went down to Southbank. The casino has these fire flame things that go off every hour which are pretty amazing, we were underneath one & you can really feel the heat! The one thing that I would have loved to do here was go clubbing but I suppose there's always next time. I treated myself last night & stayed at a hotel - I tell you what after getting used to a dorm room & sharing a bathroom with a million other people you really appreciate the finer things in life :o)

Today I caught a tram to St Kilda beach but it's raining. According to the weather experts a few days ago, today was supposed to be really, really hot.... I basically just walked through the shops then jumped back on the tram to the city. I'd planned on spending some time on the beach but the rain ruined that for me so now I'm sitting in a Internet cafe trying to waste some time till my airport pick up in a few hours :)

Well, I think that's it - the last time you'll have to read these giant emails (well for a few months anyway :o)

Take care guys & for those of you in Sydney hopefully I'll see ya soon!!!! As someone who's just come back form holiday I'll have to bore you all with my photo's next, hehehe! I wonder what's worse - getting emails form someone that gos on & on, or having to look through 500 odd photos... ;) Don't worry the photos will be completely optional! If I get it together I'll post them on the web so you can all see them :)

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEARS GUYS!!!!!!

Lot's & lot's of love,
Rach xoxoxoxox