|
1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39
40 41 42 43
44 45 46 47
48 49 50 51
52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59
60 61 62 63
64 65 66 67
68 69 70 71
72 73 74
Web Journal for the Greatest Trek on Earth
|
1
|
Wednesday,
27th March 2002
Not a lot in here yet, as we aint started yet!
|
|
2
|
Saturday,
20th April 2002
Well that’s it! We’ve
purchased the tickets, No going back now!
|
|
3
|
Wednesday,
22nd May 2002 "My Birthday"
Have a good Day
Darren!
Party on 25th, give me a ring if ya wanna come
along?
|
|
4
|
Wednesday,
3rd July 2002 "First Day"
Arrived in Buenos Aries,
its 9°C and its raining hard! Got to fly in a 747, one of Darren’s
dreams. Tash managed to enjoy the flight so she highly recommends hypo
therapy!
We have been for an authentic BA lunch of beef
at the local McDonalds, very nice!
We had a nice surprise, BA is not as expensive
as we thought and were really rich. Tonight were going to try the local
meat feast of blood sausages and large and small entrails followed by cow’s
udders. Tash refuses to try the cow’s udders! I don’t understand why, I
guess she’s just a fellow female? <P< The Hotel is really Basic, so
we have booked a new one for Thurs.
We have booked a three-night stay at the Iguza
Falls nr Brazil, we fly on the 11th.
|
|
5
|
Thursday,
5th July 2002 "Still Raining"
Hola,
Thanks for all your emails, its nice to know
your all missing us!
We've moved hotel, into more plush accommodation,
as we are considerably richer than you!
We paid our respects to Avita yesterday, well
spooky place! A cemetery with lots of little churches each holding its
own families coffins?
We had a fantastic Pizza for dinner last night;
even Tash and me could not finish it! Before dinner we had a bottle of
wine from the super market, which cost $1.50 and was one of the most expensive.
It tasted like nothing we have had before! Not your 5.99 bottle from Tesco's.
|
|
6
|
Sunday,
7th July 2002 "Its Sunny!"
Olla,
Someone show my mother how to use E-Mail!
We’ve had a busy couple of days! Friday night
we got drunk and went to the pictures to see Showtime with Eddy Murphy
and Robert Dinero, Darren fell asleep half way through!
Saturday daytime we walked a long way to an
area called La Boca. It consisted of corrugated iron houses painted in
lots of different bright colours! It probably would have looked nicer if
the sun was shining that day.
Saturday night we got drunk again and went to
a plush meat restaurant where we ate the insides of a small cow! We
decided not to do this ever again and had nightmares all night.
Today Sunday it’s really sunny. We went to San
Telmo. All the streets "which are cobbled" are closed to
traffic and are full of antique stalls. There are also lots of street
entertainers and mine artists. Everywhere you look there’s a couple doing
the Tango! We walked back along the docks were we saw a naval band.
Tonight is Veggies all the way!
|
|
7
|
Tuesday,
9th July 2002 "Its Sunny, but cold!"
Olla,
Yesterday was a busy day doing nothing!
We had some good news, our flight and
accommodation to Iguzza Falls has been confirmed for Wednesday. It has
only taken a week!
It’s just not Thomas Cook, although Pablo
"the travel agent" did his best to get it sorted sooner!
Were hoping to do a trip to the Brazilian
side, although it will be expensive, the views will be better.
We’ve been for another fantastic pizza, tuna
and blue cheese this time.
Money changing has been a big problem as only
a handful of places change travellers cheques. When we arrive there is
always a long queue. The black market is everywhere for changing dollars
as the banks are stopping people taking there savings out!
Today is independence day, No, aliens, but a
public holiday are not invading us, but things are not much different as
the shops are still open!
Didn’t do much else today as we are resting
for our big trip tomorrow. Lift off 11.25 AM!
|
|
8
|
Sunday,
14th July 2002 "Its Sunny and hot!"
Olla,
Fantastic time in Iguazu!
The falls were amazing!
INFO
- Doesn’t do it justice - Click Me!
We had a really good four days, visited the
falls every day! We’ve been to Brazil twice and Paraguay once to see the
falls and to see the largest hydroelectric power station in the world
"MHW".
We also visited a bird park and saw loads of
Toucans, Parrots and other exotic birds!
Were now back in B.A. and totally knackered!
Were off to Uruguay tomorrow for the day and Tuesday were going to rest
before flying to Chile!
We have both really enjoyed our trip to
Argentina, the people are really friendly and helpful and we have had no
bad treatment or experience anywhere. We would recommend to anyone to
visit. We would even have to say that the beef is better than ours, in
all honesty!
We would both love to come back in the summer
and visit Patagonia and sample some of the beaches, especially if it
remains as cheap as it is.
|
|
9
|
Thursday,
18th July 2002 "Cant see the sun for the smog!"
Hello,
Had a good flight over the Andes in a 747 -
400 series, managed to get a seat at the back with a window. We had great
views of the mountains.
Santiago is even busier than B.A! The smog is
so thick you can’t even see down the end of the road, never mind the Andes
only kilometres away!
We have decided to go as soon as possible due
to health!
It really is that bad, its a clear sky tonight
and the moon is a blur!
Today we arranged to go south by bus plane and
ferry, to visit the Patagonians! Were we will see Fjords, penguins and
glaciers.
Can’t wait to sample some fresh air!
It’s slightly more expensive here, there are a
thousand pesos to the pound and the hotel is 14000 per night and
breakfast is not included.
The people aren’t as friendly and not as
attractive as the Arges.
We are hoping to bus out of here on Saturday,
16 hrs later we will arrive at Puerto Mont were we will spend a couple of
days before flying to Puerto Arenas. Here we will spend 7 - 10 days exploring
the national parks before taking a 4-day cruise back along the fjords to
Puerto Mont. Then catch the bus to Valparaiso.
Should get some nice pics.
Hopefully there will be internet access, but
seems to be limited here, will try to keep you informed.
|
|
10
|
Monday,
22nd July 2002 "Bloody freezing!"
Olla,
Friday we sorted out our tickets, Its not very
often you have to book a plane, cruise and bus journey in one day, but
all was O.K. Saturday was our last day in Santiago, we explored the
Parque De Metropolitarna which is a huge steep rock in the middle of the
city, only accessible by a 1925, 485 Mitre Vernacular railway.
There is a zoo half way with a collection of
exotic animals, one of which "a tiger" escaped and roamed free
for several hours!
We didn’t visit the zoo, as they are cruel.
When you reach the top you have a view of the city
that is if you can see through the smog! We were lucky or unlucky,
depending on which way you want to look at it, as it rained which cleared
the smog and we were able to see the snow capped mountains in the
distance.
After the Vernacular railway, there is a cable
car ride, which is 2000 meter’s long and very high! It is a little more
modern than the railway but we still felt nervous.
Luckily there was a lot of condensation from
the rain so we couldn’t see how frightening the height was. We were both
glad to get off and have a coffee!
We left Saturday night on our 13-hour journey
south to Puerto Mont. When we arrived we searched for digs. We managed to
find a family run guesthouse. Its basic but cheap at 4.50 + breakfast.
Puerto Mont is very much like the town
Gloucester in the film Perfect Storm with George Clooney. It’s very windy
and very cold with lots of rain.
|
|
11
|
Wednesday,
24th July 2002 "Just like Christmas!"
Olla,
We were so glad to leave Puerto Mont as its
wet and grey, we had a fantastic flight in a 767 300 with LAN Chile. The
views from the plane were fantastic! Huge glaciers, volcanoes and snow
topped mountains all the way down in beautiful sunshine. We are hoping to
see penguins tomorrow.
|
|
12
|
Friday,
26th July 2002 "Its the wrong time of year for doing this!"
Boo,
We started off so positively in Puerto Arenas,
we’ve now discovered at our great expense that most attractions are
closed for the winter, the penguins are only here during breeding season
in November/December "Doh"!
The only thing we could visit that wasn’t
closed was a fort that once was the original town of Puerto Arenas
founded by the Spanish over two hundred years ago "wow"!
It had its good points, we got to see some
seals, bobbing up and down, thinking what the hell are those tourists
doing here!
The next day "today" we caught the
bus north to Puerto Natales.
The scenery is nicer here, we are surrounded
by snow topped mountains and lakes, there are even Flamingo’s here! Even
though its the wrong time of year we managed to book three nights in Torres
Del Pain National Park Click
Here for Picture!"
We are looking forward to four days trekking!
We’ve also booked a two-day one-night tour of
the Argentine Glacier Park. Click Here
for Info!"
We hope the weather is going to be OK?
|
|
13
|
Thursday,
1st August 2002 "Winter Wonderland!"
Greetings,
Well what an amazing few days we have had! On
Saturday we were dropped off in the National park Torres Del Pains at
midday, where we had to walk nine miles to a hostel in the mountains
"What great fun!” We arrived at sunset and rested for the night in
what you could call a very large refrigerator, as it had no heating after
dark! The next day after a bread and cheese breakfast we walked the 14-mile
trip to the Glacier Grey "Why it’s called Grey we don’t know as it’s
a shocking blue colour". The weather was a little cloudy but we had
a good view of the glacier and icebergs. We took many photos of this huge
sea of floating ice moving slowly to the sea! We only regretted not
having a drink to put any of this ice into!
The next day after another night in the deep
freeze we walked another exhausting 9 miles to the Frances valley, were
we could see another glacier, which did not like the sun, which kept
causing avalanches. These were very impressive and loud. They sounded
like cracks of thunder and gave us the willies as we thought the snow
would come tumbling down on us!
Our last day was another exaughsting trek
through snow back to the administration to be picked up at 4. The
transport however didn’t arrive until 5.30 and took another 6 hours
through thick snow back to Puerto Natales. It was quite a journey, not
for the faint hearted!
All in all, it was a fascinating experience
were we saw some beautiful scenery and met some interesting people, well
four other people actually, 3 Spaniards and an Israeli. As we had no food
they really looked after us!
The last two days we’ve been back in Argentina
"again I here you say!” to see a very famous glacier
"Moreno", well not that famous because we hadn’t neared of it until
now! It was HUGE! As it’s moving large pieces of ice "weighing tons"
keep falling off regularly. Your not allowed too close to it as 30 people
have been killed in the last 30 years due to ice flying through the air
and making a mess! We have lots of photos "of ice".
Back in Puerto Natalis where we were supposed
to catch the Navimag Cargo ship back to Puerto Mont in the north
"Guess what!” its broke. Apparently they have a second ship in case
this should happen but guess what, that’s broke too! So, we have to fly
out of here next Wednesday. Luckily we have a return flight anyway thanks
to Darren's intuition "SPOOKY"!
That’s it, that’s our news; we have to go now
as we have square eyes!
|
|
14
|
Monday,
5th August 2002 "Boredom!"
Hello,
Still here in Puerto Natalis, it’s getting a
little routine now! Glad to be leaving tomorrow for Puerto Arenas, not
much of an improvement but something else to look at! We’ve had an interesting
stay here with our new friends Philippe and Billa our trusty innkeepers. Darren
has the pleasure of making a fish curry for the establishment tonight.
Hopefully there will be no runny tummies tomorrow.
We are looking forward to going north to get a
little warmer!
|
|
15
|
Friday,
9th August 2002 "So Bright you gota wear shades!"
Hello,
At last we have moved out of the cold. We are
in Chile's second biggest city Valparaiso. There are lots of vernacular
railways 15 in fact! We went up the oldest one today it used to be
powered by steam. It was old! We had to buy some shades today, as the sun
is so bright. Tonight we are going to see the Minority Report at the
cinema. It’s all exciting stuff!
|
|
16
|
Sunday,
11th August 2002 "Its getting Otter!"
Greetings,
Were now in the Atacama Desert, yes we have
gone from snow to sand in just four days and were sweating, well not really...
Its warm and muggy, and not so sunny, perhaps Valparaiso
was having a heat wave, as there is lots of photos in the tabloids
showing scantily dressed females on the beach, who knows?
We had a 16 hr bus journey to Antafagasta, yes
16 hrs. It was not as bad as it sounds, the bus had reclining seats and
you got breakfast and dinner thrown in, not bad for 12 quid!
We walked down to see the Pacific Ocean and
while on the pier we saw a sea Otter bobbing up and down with a crab in
its mouth! Its first Otter we’ve ever seen, it brightened our day!
Were only staying here for one night, its just
as well as our loggings are a complete dump, we wont even use the toilette
and have to walk to McDonalds up the road!
Tomorrow were travelling, buy bus again as we
cant get enough of them, across to San Pablo. There we hope to stay a
couple of nights as we want to visit the Moon Valley, which apparently
looks like Mars, how anybody knows this I don’t know as im sure nobody
around here even owns a telescope, nor been to Mars and why its not
called Mars Valley, I don’t know? And we would also like to visit the
Geysers in the area. Apparently there the highest Geyser fields in the
world, but Im no expert so take this information with a pinch of salt.
That’s it, that’s our news for today....
Adios Amigo’s
|
|
17
|
Monday,
12th August 2002 "Were Sunburnt"
Howdy,
We arrived in the desert today and its dessertly
wild and fantastic!
We’ve found a cool place to stay and there are
lots of trips to go on. Tomorrow were of to the Moon Valley. We did go
for a walk this afternoon into the desert and ended up being a 12-mile
trek in the dark. It was very scenic, but hard work in the heat and now
we are sun burnt and really tired. So now were off for a cool beer and a
good nights sleep.
|
|
18
|
Wednesday,
14th August 2002 "Mission to Mars"
Wazzakzoo, that’s Martian
for hello.
Yesterday we moved rooms into a cheaper place,
its just as nice, and maybe a little smaller but it has a garden and an
outside kitchen we can use, making it even cheaper for us. We managed to
cook up such culinary delights as pasta with mackerel in tomato sauce....
it was probably the best meal we had cooked so far as it tasted really
nice, although Tash cant agree as she couldn’t taste anything due to a
cold.
At three o’clock we took a tour to the Valley
Del Luna, it consisted of a walk through Death Valley, which I thought
was in Arizona, were there is a lot of sand and dead stuff as nothing
grows there, but we did see some birds?
Then we went on to the salt mines, were there
are three pillars, formed by wind, and called the three Mary’s? And of
course a salt mine! Next we were whisked away in our minibus along with
15 other minibuses to a huge sand dune called the Chilean Coliseum, were
you are instructed to climb to watch the sunset in Valley Del Luna. Which
would have been ok if it wasn’t for the fact that we are at nearly 9000
feet above sea level, which makes breathing difficult!
The landscape was really amazing and colourful
even though the view was spoilt by the large presence of minibuses in the
distance and the collection of tourists surrounding us. Why they couldn’t
find a sand dune of there own in the middle of a desert we don’t know!
After some confusion over exactly where we
were supposed to meet the minibus, we whisked off again into the now dark
desert.
After a short distance we were given torches
and taken to a gorge and told that we were about to go Chilean pot
holing? Why we had to do this at night we will never know. It involved
crawling on all fours through minute gaps in the earth and over salt
lakes. Luckily it didn’t last too long.
Tomorrow were off to see some geysers at four
AM "yippee"!
|
|
19
|
Friday,
16th August 2002 "Geyser Tastic!"
Ciao
After getting up at 3.30 Am, the minibus
picked us up. It took us another three hours along the bumpiest road in
the world to get to El Tatio. It was pitch black so you couldn’t see
anything on the way there. After a couple of hours we started to see
large white diagonal spikes on the road side, which we thought may be
salt, but which turned out to be ice! We should have guessed it was ice
as it was freezing in the minibus! After a battle with the other
minibuses racing up to the 12000 feet destination and after picking up
more people from a stranded minibus that had broken down we arrived. Our
first impression was of "why have we come all this way to see some
steam!". We were given an hour to walk around and see what we could
before breakfast, a bread roll and coffee. It was freezing our hands
turned blue and it was really hard to breath due to the altitude. We
would warm our hands on the rising steam, were it not for the dangerous
gases that were emanating from the ground.
After breakfast the sun started to show its
orange glow, at last some heat! With the sun came a new impression of
complete beauty. The geysers created huge plumes of white steam, which
created strange and deformed shadows in the sun. After a while we were whisked
off to a thermal pool were you could go swimming. Which was the last
thing on our minds after inuring the cold, although the water was a tepid
thirty-two degrees. There were some other geysers here too. We were given
another hour to walk around and take photos along with fifty other
tourists!
After an hour we got back into the minibus and
proceeded back along the road. We seemed to be on a different road
though. We stopped at various points to take photos of wildlife and
views. We were also taken to a deserted village well apart from the men
flogging tea, coffee and bread to the tourists. It was ok but the only
interesting thing was an old Chilean church. After this they took us back
to San Pedro.
In the evening Tash cooked a really
complicated meal of cheesy mashed potato and mackerel with tomato sauce!
It was delicious!
|
|
20
|
Sunday,
18th August 2002 "Very Sunburnt!"
Ciao,
Well.... had a cool time here in old San
Pedro, moving on today at eight tonight. Lately we’ve been conserving our
funds by doing our own cooking. Last night we thought we would treat ourselves
and in great British tradition we had egg, steak and chips. Oh and Lager!
Believe it or not its a traditional Chilean dish, yeah no lie!
For the last two days we’ve been trekking in
the desert, that’s why were sunburnt! We’ve been to some Inca ruins and
Pukara Indian ruins.
|
|
21
|
Thursday,
22ND August 2002 "Goodbye Chile!"
Ciao,
It’s been five days since our last update. In
that time we have travelled too the very north of Chile to Arica. From
here we were planning to go to Peru, but decided it would be better if we
went to Bolivia first and then across to Lake Titicaca and Peru.
Yesterday we took a tour to the Park National
Lauca. It was a really good tour, which took us up to 4500M. We still
found it hard to breath and some people had symptoms of altitude sickness
but apart from that we were ok, just as well as we have to cross the
Andes again to get to La Paz tomorrow. We were taken to a couple of
colonial villages with 17th century churches and funnily enough, the
locals all had little stores selling jumpers hats and rugs as usual.
Along the way we saw lots of wildlife,
including Alpaca, Vilcuna, Guanaco and Lamas "one of which tried to
spit at me as I tried to get a photo". We also saw, what looked like
a rabbit with a long tail, We think its called a Conejo... but it was a
marsupial? We saw lots of wild fowl, none of which we know the names
of...
The best part was the Lake Chungara; it was
formed when a lava flow dammed the snowmelt stream from 6350M volcanos
Parinicota. It was really picturesque with the Guanaco in front feeding.
Arica has been a nice place to stay, even
though many said it wasn’t. The beaches are a bit far from the centre and
lack the Miami image that Iqueque has, but the city itself is a lot
better.
This will be our last entry from Chile,
Bolivia here we come!
|
|
22
|
Saturday, 24th
August 2002 "Hello Bolivia!"
Hello,
Were in Bolivia, well La Paz to be exact. It’s
Really good, full of hustle and bustle! We had great problems finding
anywhere to stay as we don’t have a guidebook, but luckily we met a
couple of young Parisians who offered to show us to a cheap hotel. They were
a nice couple? They had travelled from Santiago to La Paz in one week! A
very long journey, it took us over two weeks to do the same trip. They
said they spent every night on the bus! Sounds like fun???
La Paz is great; it’s set at the bottom of a
huge crater! On each side there are mountains. The whole crater is full
of houses; it’s a bizarre sight. The women dress in a traditional bowler
hat and a million skirts. They look really good and the men just dress as
normal!
Were looking to book a trip around La Paz, there’s
a number of jungle treks which require you to have specialised equipment
so we wont be doing those.
Were both suffering a bit with altitude sickness?
We both had a restless night even though we were exhausted and had vivid
dreams. Other symptoms are dry cough and breathlessness. It should be
better after a couple of days.
|
|
23
|
Thursday,
29th August 2002 "Lake Titicaca"
Hi,
We spent 3 days in La Paz and enjoyed it very
much. We took a tour to some ancient pyramid ruins called Tiwanaka. They
were 2000 years old! That was very interesting we didn't realise there
was so much history pre dating the Inca culture.
We travelled to Copacabana on Tuesday, it is
right on Lake Titicaca and it's very beautiful. The Lake is huge and we
are higher up than La Paz so the altitude makes doing anything-physical
hard work! Yesterday we took a boat to a nearby Island of the Sun. The
boat went mega slow so it took 2 hours to go a short distance! The island
was fantastic though. It is where the first Inca founder was born, apparently.
We walked from the north to the south, which was 6 miles (very good
practice for Machu Pichu). The scenery was brilliant. We saw a huge reed
boat at the harbour taking rich tourists literally for a ride!
There is trout from the Lake on the menu in
all the restaurants. We have had trout for 2 nights running. It is really
good but a little salty? There are a lot of hippie types giving out
flyers to bars; they don't look Bolivian at all! We have heard the bars
are weird too!
We have met some really good people here too.
A couple of Canadian brothers and an archaeologist from Finland! We also
bumped into the Parisian couple that we met in La Paz.
Tomorrow we head to Peru to the city of Cusco.
From here we will do the Inca Trail.
If you want to chat to us Live on MSN Chat,
Just get a Net Passport and e-mail it to us or enter ours,
daza77@msn.com. It’s really quick and easy. Just register below for your
net passport. Get
a Net Passport Now, Just click here to register!
|
|
24
|
Tuesday,
3rd September 2002 "Tash´s Birthday in Peru"
Olla,
Well, here we are in Peru, it doesn’t seem
five minutes ago when we were looking through the guides at Peru. It's a FAB
place, maybe a little expensive for us but nice all the same. Were
staying in Cusco that is especially magical as it’s a big Inca ruin with Spanish
architecture. The square is just amazing with its cathedral, churches and
fountains. The nightlife is cool to, more like a European city than Peru,
with Irish, Norton Bike Rats and other strangely familiar names that just
want to make you drink!
Well, as most of you know... September 1st was
Tash´s Birthday...
We had a great night on Saturday. We had a bit
of a cultural mix with one Argentine guy, two girls and one guy from Brazil
and two brothers from Vancouver. We all went out for what will prove to
be a memorable night! The evening started with us meeting at the fountain
in the main square "Plaza De Arms", and going for a meal in one
of the many upmarket gut rot eateries that litter Plaza De Arms.
Tash, as it was her birthday wanted something
special! And we have the most expensive thing on the menu at 40 Soles
"about eight quid" we have GUINEAPIG! YES.... she ordered Guinea
pig!
Well, she wished she hadn’t. It was like a
huge roasted RAT! Big claws, Teeth "Yes it still had its
head!", but missing its fur! The two Vancouver guys, Ian and Alex
also had the rat and soon started to get stuck in, but Tash just couldn’t
get to grips with eating it. Apparently the best way is just to rip the
meat off with your teeth, as there’s not a lot of meat on a Guinea pig as
you can appreciate. The spectacle of this just about put everybody else
off his or her food including me. For an expensive meal we didn’t get to
eat much at all, We guess that’s why we got so drunk later in the evening
and suffered all night with bad stomachs.
The Inca Trail, Yes, at last we get to go! We’ve
got our tickets and were off tomorrow morning at 7.30. I guess we have a
good idea of what to expect and it isn’t good! I mean after all the hype it’s
only a few old stonewalls on a hill? Well isn’t it? We’ve all seen the
glossy photos and being here we’ve seen some duff photos too, but we will
let you know just as it is. We’ve been informed that the weather isn’t
good, well it is the dry season after all and just like every where else
the weather is screwy. So it looks as if were walking in the rain to high
cloudy, wet cow sheds with no roofs. But as you can tell we are keeping an
open mind! We are sure we will have a fantastic/memorable time, well as
long as the bill remains on my Visa account!
So, this is it, that’s the plan, well not really,
were not too sure what to do or where to go next? I think we’ve decided
to fly straight to Panama from Lima. Its very expensive, but we have to
bypass Columbia, well the Darien Gap and there doesn’t seem to be any
other option. We’ve tried all manner of scenarios, Quito to Panama, Quito
to Bogotá to Panama and Lima to Quito to Bogotá to Panama, Bogotá to
Panama and even Lima to Santiago to Panama, but they are all very expensive
and very long journeys. So We think we are going to have to bus to Lima
"20 hrs" and take the flight straight to Panama! Its not good
due to the cost, but what else can we do? We have to get to Mexico some
how!
Anyhow, we have to go, we’ve got a flight
ticket to buy!
|
|
25
|
Sunday,
8th September 2002 "Inca-tastic"
Yo People!
Were back,
We had a great time doing the Inca Trail, read
on......
DAY 1
After sitting on a bus for 7 hrs, why We don’t
know as we had to get up for 7.30 and spent the next three hours parked
in town waiting for the driver to go and get his driving licence, we
arrived at KM 82. This is the distance from Cusco and the start of the
Inca Trail, were we had lunch for another hour. We eventually started the
Inca trail at 3, it’s a bit late in the day for walking 7 miles, but what
do We know. The walk started easy enough following the course of the
river and gradually climbing up. On the way we got to know the rest of
our group, one German girl "Ilka", a Spanish couple who were on
there honeymoon "Whan and Veronica" and three Koreans
"Jerry, Janis and Ann, these are there English names as we couldn’t
pronounce there real names, they all sounded very similar like the sound
you would make when hitting your little toe on something hard". We
arrived at the camp in the dark; we all had a tent each on someone’s back
yard in the middle of nowhere. The porters rushed about making us dinner
which arrived at 7.30, we all sat outside with only a candle for light.
The food was OK but very basic, soup and rice with bits in, it could have
been meat or just dirt from the bottom of the pan? After dinner our guide
"Martha" reassured us on the distance we had to accomplish the
next day, only another 8 miles climbing up to 4200M and so we went to
bed.
DAY 2
We all got rudely waken by the resident cock
at 6.30 that is the Cockerel. Breakfast consisted of bread and jam and a
cup of hot water with coca leaves. We didn’t get high its just a cure for
the altitude. We started walking through the valley for a couple of hours
and then started to ascend up between the mountains. The climb was very
hard and very steep. We could easily see the other groups from the bottom
making a very slow assent to the top. After a few hours and half way up
we stopped for lunch. All of our eight porters looked completely knackered
as they prepared our lunch! As well as the food and the tents they also
had to carry other peoples bags as they were struggling too much, we are
happy to say we carried our own bags the whole way. There were many
people in great stress and suffering from the altitude, one guy was on oxygen
but our group was OK apart from cramps. At lunch the Spanish couple told
us that they had lost their money at breakfast! Whan had gone to the
toilet and had left his money belt, 5 minutes later he remembered and on
returning he had found all his money gone? We still don’t know what
happened to it, maybe the family were we stayed had taken it or the
porters? After lunch we continued up the mountain. Now we could see the
snow line as we continued and the cool air was refreshing as we climbed.
After a few hours Darren arrived first out of the group, overtaking many
of the other groups. The other guides commented on how fast he had
climbed. The views from the top were amazing, the clouds racing over the
top! After a brief rest we continued down very steep steps to our base
for the night. The camp was very small and all the other groups stayed there
together, huddled on the side of the mountain.
DAY 3
Today we started at 6.30. The weather was really
good, clear and sunny and we could see the valley in the far distance. We
walked till we reached an impressive Inca ruin perched on the side of the
mountain. Here our guide took us around and showed us what Hiram Bingham
had discovered back in 1914. After we walked for another hour before
stopping and having lunch. Today we had a treat, as well as soup rice and
black stuff, we also got squash! I guess we stopped for about an hour and
then continued up hill again. This part of the journey was fantastic; the
views of the valley and the flora were breathtaking. The brightly
coloured mosses and orchids and plants clinging to the cliff face were
amazing and for me were far more impressive than any Inca ruin. We saw
humming birds feeding on the trumpet flowers and condors flying in the
distance, well it was either that or a big pigeon. We climbed up and up
till we reached what would have been our third camp if it were not for
the kind permission of the Inca trail people. They regulate were you can
camp. Luckily we didn’t have to camp here, as it would mean getting up at
2.30 the next day. From here we continued down and down and down. We
could see Machu Pichu mountain in the distance, a long way down. We kept
walking down until we reached camp at about 6.00, just as it was getting
dark. We were all knackered and extremely hungry and thirsty. Luckily at
this campsite there was a bar and restaurant and showers! Not long after
we arrived we were given snacks and we just couldn’t resist buying a
couple of beers too. We didn’t move until our evening meal, we said thank
you to our porters who would not be going any further with us. It was a
very emotional time parting with the money for the tip. Our guide then
informed us as we were all getting down to serious drinking and Donna
Summers that we had to get up for 3.30, so we all went to bed...
DAY 4
After a bang on the tent we were up... racing
down to breakfast! Well something like that. For breakfast we had
pancakes, what a treat. Soon everybody was assembling for the last part
of the journey. There must have been a couple of hundred people there,
many on a puffy two day trail were they stay in a hostel and a comfy bed,
wimps! I guess we must have been the third or fourth group to leave that
morning. We soon all ganged up together on the narrow path, all in single
file, all with torches like a mad scene from Snowhite and the 200 giant
dwarfs! I guess we were all in a rush to get to the Sun Gate before
sunrise, another hour away. Soon people began to get tired and stopped,
our group stormed ahead with Whan as our leader. Soon we encountered some
steep steps, everybody bunched up together with the daunting steppes ahead,
and many people on reaching the top stopped to admire the view, Whan on
reaching the top went to investigate.... He soon shouted to Tash to keep
going... We all stormed on, now in front. We soon reached the Sun Gate
and had our first view of Machu Pichu. It was a bit of a disappointment,
a group of cowsheds round a mountain, but a beautiful view of the valley!
We waited for the sunrise, but as it was cloudy we never saw it! After
half an hour we carried on down towards Machu Pichu. As we got closer it
got more and more impressive, till at last we could appreciate the full beauty
and brilliance of the city, what a place it must have been....
We spent the whole day there relaxing and
getting bitten by the flies. That evening we caught the backpacker train
back to Cusco.
It really was a magical place and an experience
we will both never forget, We don’t think either of us would do the Inca
trail again as it would cloud the memories of a fantastic journey with
lovely people.
|
|
26
|
Friday,
13th September 2002 "Panama"
Hello,
Well after a nice flight via Columbia, don’t
worry... we were only there a couple of hours, we arrived in Panama.
It's a real busy place and it's huge! There is
a real mixture of cultures here a lot are Caribbean some are Spanish,
Indian and European.
We went to the Panama Canal today. It was
fascinating to watch the huge ships sail through the locks. The ship we
saw was Swedish and it had a cargo of 4000 cars going to America. It was
BIG!
We were really lucky, while looking around the
old colonial part of town we met a retired police lieutenant, well that’s
what he told us. He showed us around the whole place getting access into
very exclusive places, the opera house, nightclubs etc. He seemed to know
everybody. We thought what a nice guy to be showing us around. He even
got a taxi with us to the canal, but after arriving back in town, surprise
surprise he asked us for some money. It was a bit of a shock as we had
joked about it and dismissed the idea as he was such a nice guy and
obviously was an influential person around town. It just goes to show you
can never tell! Anyway we only gave him 3 dollars for a day’s tour, poor
guy, perhaps he will think twice next time?
It seems that we have seen everything around
the city now and think we will try to get to the beaches tomorrow if
possible. Were not sure how to get there, but we know were the bus
station is so good luck to us!
|
|
27
|
Monday,
16th September 2002 "Bogas Del Toros"
Ciao,
Hope you are all well, thanks for your
continued viewing.
Well here we are on the Caribbean cost, there
is a website you can look at if you want? There are a number of links at
the bottom of the page! www.bocas.com
Its a very slow, relaxing place, many of the
locals speak English due to there Caribbean descent. This is great as our
Spanish is still not brilliant. The people of Bocas Del Toros are a
friendly bunch and all very proud of there air strip that we saw today. We
even managed to wave off the 2.00 o’clock flight to Costa Rica, though
most people looked too nervous to be on the plane "a Foker 50"
than happy going to Costa Rica.
Getting here was blessed with mixed emotions.
We managed to get a bus at 20.00 to Almiantre, which arrived at 5.00 in
the morning, instead of 6.00. The whole coach loads of people were left
on the side of the road waiting for the sleepy town of Almiantre to wake
up. At around 6.00 a taxi arrived and an old black Caribbean guy
instructed all of us, in Caribbean English to get on. Off we went through
the town till we arrived down a dark road and instructed to go across
some railway tracks to the boat yard where we would get the water ferry
to the Island. We climbed aboard a small boat that could sit 12 people.
We started off nice and slow in the pitch black of the night with faint
flashes of a thunderstorm in the distance, then, without warning the boat
accelerated, faster and faster and faster till the boat was riding out of
the water with just its engine in the brink. It was like a scene off
James Bond. It was certainly an experience we wont forget.
|
|
28
|
Saturday,
21ST September 2002 "Survivor"
Buenos,
It’s been a few days since we’ve updated the
web site as we’ve been stranded on Survival Island, you know... the TV
programme? Yes, we’ve been staying there! No point in saying what it was
like as we are sure you’ve all seen the programme. Apparently they made
three TV series, one Argentine the first, a Columbium one? And lastly the
English version! Each series had a million dollars prize money; the
locals/tourists were not allowed to visit parts of the island while they
were filming. It’s quite a large island with a town on one end of the
island, not really remote eh? We stayed in the town called Bastamentos;
it was a nice place, no roads or airports, just a 6ft wide concrete path
that ran the length of the town/village! We stayed with a family of
Caribbean decent; they were really nice and friendly, although there
English was hard to understand sometimes.
We left there yesterday, sunburnt and sweating
to the cool highlands were it’s raining well it did yesterday anyway.
Boquette is really nice, well OK! It’s full of
retired Europeans and a bit expensive. The area is known for its coffee
were we went to see it being made today. We took a tour by a retired
Dutch guy, who owns a coffee farm. Didn’t quite understand how you can be
retired and own a coffee farm though? He was really cool and made the four-hour
tour flyby, it should have been three, but we all got on so well that We don’t
think he noticed the time. So now we know all about coffee.... From the
bean to the cup, we know the business! Its a fascinating thing, a cup of
coffee, We never did know all the politics involved, at least Tash now
knows the difference from instant and the real stuff!
Were hoping to do a trek on Monday from
Boquette to somewhere, don’t remember were, we are sure were find it,
over a volcano through the jungle, so if you never here from us again you
know were gone, Tarzan style and want to be left alone in our loin
cloths!
Top of page?
|
|
29
|
Wednesday,
25th September 2002 "Costa Rica"
Hello,
We’ve been having a great time in Panama, the
walk through the jungle was ok, didn’t see much wild life though, well. Except
Tash running up the trail.
We met some great people at our hostel, we had
a dining area were we could all cook and sit out of the rain and chat. We’ve
learnt tons of stuff, were to stay, the best bars, what mountains to
climb, how to keep your pants clean for a week, that sort of indispensable
knowledge.
We left today and headed for a town called Slobbering
jugs on the border, not really, We made that up! I cant remember the
name, but it might as well be that, unless the people from Slobbering
jugs read this and come and get us in the night! Here we had the great
pleasure of getting our passport stamped, its always-great fun! They don’t
seem to care which part of your passport they stamp and We now look quite
funny with 25-09-02 stamped on my forehead! Anyway... after are dealings
with the anti-Christ we were off on our way to Costa Rica, which wasn’t
far as the fence was only two steps away! So.. Here we our now in Costa
Rica, its not really that different from Panama. The money has changed
obviously, from Panama Balboas "US Dollars" to wads of Colones,
about five thousand to the pound? So now we feel really rich, our pockets
bulging with thousands of the Colones notes, it’s like a seen from OK
coral as we walk down the street!
Being the sadistic pair we are, were making ourselves
climb one of the biggest volcanoes in South America in the next couple of
days, well We want to climb it and Tash has no choice in the matter. She doesn’t
mind really after days of persuading herself she’s quite keen on the idea
now!
Click here
for a FAB website on the trail!
Top of page?
|
|
30
|
Monday,
30TH September 2002 "Mount Chirripo"
Hi,
Climbed up Mt Chirripo!
Staying at our base, San Isidro De La General
we guessed we would be walking for 4 days in the National Park so we went
shopping for food to last us the duration, as food was not available
there. We came back with 4 bags of shopping, enough to cover the whole of
the bed in packet food, we bought nuts, resins, pasta, noodles, chowmein,
packet milk, packet mash etc, etc, etc! Everything you could imagine that
required water to inflate it to save weight!
We arrived at our next base, San Gerada De
Rivas. Here we would get our ticket to the Park and stay the night to
allow us to depart early the next morning. At the ranger station to my
horror and Tash´s delight, he informed us that each night would cost us
20 dollars each. This news totally screwed our plans; there was no way we
could afford 160 dollars for the four days. Instead we decided to just do
the one night with the option to stay another if we wanted. So now were
stuck with 3 bags of food that we have to cram into our already bursting
rucksacks.
We left the hostel at 4 in the morning after
having a breakfast of cheese and bread, well it wasn’t really bread, just
the sort of stuff you use for burritos. Tasted bloody awful!
The walk started OK; well it was pitch black
as it was 4 in the morning. We had started so early as it was a 14K walk
up hill from 1300M to 3200M to the hostel and we were informed that it
would rain from about one in the afternoon. At around 11 it pored down, We
mean it was coming down in buckets, we were soaked to the skin, even our
waterproof boots were sopping. We arrived at the hostel at 12.30, managed
to scribble our names and passport numbers in the book before dying of hypothermia.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if Darren had brought another change of
clothes "DOH". As it happens Tash treated him to a rather
fetching Chirripo T shirt, just to save him the embarrassment of walking
around the hostel half naked. Dinner consisted of hot dogs and instant
mash. We went to bed at 6 totally exhausted.
It was going to be a long day today, we got up
at 3 in the morning and had instant porridge with instant milk and went
off into the night to climb mount Chirripo. It was a 5.5K walk up 600M to
the top. It took us a good 2.5 hrs to get to the top missing the sunset
by 30 minutes but the weather was good and clear. The views from the top
were breathtaking, we could see all the way to the Caribbean coast in the
north. After half an hour we started down hill. I guess it must have been
7 when we left, half way down to the hostel we suddenly realized just how
far we had to walk to get down, 18 miles, descending some 2500M!!! Half
way down it started to poor with rain again, this time much harder than
before, we were soaked and tired. It took us to 3.30 in the afternoon to arrive
back at San Gerada De Rivas. We had been walking for nearly 13Hrs non-stop
and covered 18 miles!
It’s the hardest thing we’ve ever done, our
legs... we have no legs, just lumps of useless limbs. Tash, bless her,
never complained once all the way down, what a women... Hats off to her,
she really is the best!
Top of page?
|
|
31
|
Wednesday,
3RD October 2002 "Red Hot Chilly Peppers"
Yo!
Been staying in a home from home, have a look
if you want to.... Click Me it’s
really nice. Were not staying in the dorms, but have our own room with a
bath and its got gold taps! Its pretty nice, fitted wardrobe, balcony,
wooden floors, double bed and my favourite perk of the hostel, free
internet! The people who run it are really nice, there from Columbia don’t
ya know. Not sure what happened to the men in the family, but the mother
of one son and her sister are really nice. The son is a nice chat and
speaks perfect English, which is another blessing. He has it really easy though;
his job is to look after the hostel full time with his mate, while his
mother and her sister stay elsewhere. He just sits around all day
watching television while a made comes in and cleans the place. What a
life, We want to run a hostel like that! It really is a nice change to
have comfortable loggings and not the normal rubbish we get. We also have
a kitchen, so we can get rid of the hundredweight of shopping we bought
from Chirripo.
Chilly Peppers! All through south and central
America we’ve wanted to see them in concert, but have always been they’re
two late or too early. At last, in Costa Rica we had our chance... Only
reading about it two days before the concert we rushed to San Jose to get
the tickets, only to be told that we were too late by one hour. We tried
all over the city that day going to record shops, to the offices of the
ticket sales, everywhere but no tickets, we were devastated. Anyway, we
went straight to the Stadium the next day at eight in the morning hoping
to get a ticket, which in the end after much fuss we managed to get one
from a ticket tout. Already cueing were hundreds of fans. We decided to
go and have a coffee and return later, by this time the cues had tripled
and we decided we couldn’t handle cueing so we found an off licence...
Anyway, to make a long story short, with the help of some Costa Rican’s,
Darren got very drunk! So drunk in fact that he couldn’t stand and spent
most of the concert with his head in his hands being sick! What a night!
Top of page?
|
|
32
|
Saturday,
12th October 2002 "Monte Verde"
Yo Gringo’s!
Well it’s been a while, dam expensive here in
old Costa Rica, especially the internet, that’s why we haven’t been
updating lately "we haven’t been kidnapped, just skint!".
We’ve been walking again, this time to see
Volcan Poas. Well it wasn’t far, just 200M from the car park to the top.
We had great weather down in San Jose and thought we would have fantastic
views from the top, as we neared the weather had other ideas and thick
fog closed in covering the crater. We were very disappointed. I even
wrote a terrible comment in the guest book, how could they charge 7
dollars to see just fog? Darren asked the guy at the information desk if
it was ever possible to see the crater during the wet season, he said usually
not? What a scam, that’s Costa Rica for you! Anyway we sat and watched
the video of what we were supposed to see, all very nice, Gits!!! Feeling
disappointed and frustrated we thought we would just go and have one last
look, we still had an hour until the bus arrived and what do you know,
the cloud cleared much to the delight of everyone! It was a spectacular
sight, a huge crater with a lagoon and lots of stinking yellow smoke.
The next day we left for Montezuma, it was a
long and complicated journey. A journey that involved bus, taxi's and
ferry's and Darren didn’t want to go, but had promised Tash after there
marathon trek up Chirripo. We arrived late and managed to find a reasonably
cheap place with a mad old woman called Martha. The guidebook even said
she was mad and they were right. We managed three days of this so-called
Paradise! It was really a tourist trap designed for surfer types that all
seemed to have the same tattoo's and lots of money. It really was a
pretentious place. We are sure we would have loved it 5 years ago, but
now we are old and responsible adults?
We left on the 8th to Punta Arenas; we couldn’t
face another long journey so we decided to spend the night here, plus it
was raining hard. We spent the night in a cell, We can’t think of any
other way to describe it, at least it was clean and the staffs were sane!
The next morning the place looked lovely, palm trees, a big beach and We
mean big. We spent the morning sunbathing and booking our onward ticket
to Montverde.
The slow bus journey up the continental divide
took three hours. On the way Tash started a conversation with an English
lady in front. As we arrived in town the lady offered us the rent of her apartment
for 3 quid a night, as we were English. Of course we accepted. It’s a
lovely place; we have our own washing machine and kitchen, what luxuries.
We've been walking again, this time in the Monte Verde & Ecological
reserves, they were really nice although a little expensive at 12
dollars. We visited a butterfly farm that was fascinating. They also had
insects common to the area and included Hercules beetles that were alive!
They are massive! The collection also included live exhibits of the
poisonous variety, Scorpions and spiders, which was un-nerving as they
are local to the area. We also visited the Humming Bird gallery. It was
fantastic, the size and the colours were amazing and so, so fast! We took
many photos, well, tried!
We are leaving for Nicaragua on Tuesday and
will sadly miss our apartment, although we wont miss the Scorpions we
found! Tash screamed at the realisation of real live scorpions in our
bedroom. It had just caught a cockroach, which alone would have worried
anyone. Darren managed to catch them in a saucepan and throw them out the
door. Now we are constantly checking everywhere for the critters.
Virgina, our host, has invited us to a meal
tonight at her house, so were off to buy a bottle of red. Hope to write
more in cheaper Nicaragua......
Top of page?
|
|
33
|
Tuesday,
15th October 2002 "Nicaragua"
Yo Gringo’s!
Well we have reached Nicaragua finally after a
long journey of 7 hours! The border crossing was a very long-winded
affair. After we entered Nicaragua we passed 2 huge volcanoes on a
massive lake, they looked very impressive. We are hoping to visit them
next.
We arrived in San Juan Del Sur feeling tired
and hungry, but it is a beautiful place. The town is in a nice horseshoe
bay with a good beach, and it feels very relaxed. We found out though
there isn’t a bank so we have to go to the next town to change money.
Luckily we changed $10 at the border so we were able to eat a really
tasty fish burger for dinner. Our lodgings are pretty good too not the
Ritz but we have a balcony and are overlooking the beach all for $4 each!
We have just found out about the bombings in
Bali we are very shocked, it goes to show how frightening the world is at
the moment.
Top of page?
|
|
34
|
Friday,
18th October 2002 "San Juan Del Sur"
Hello!
Not much to say other than we’ve been having a
rest! I know most of you think were just lazing around, but was not! Its
bloody hard work doing nothing and we deserve a rest.
Found an Italian that does great Pizza, he's
been living out here for 17 years as a pizza chef luckily for us. Its
that good were going there tonight for our last meal before hitting the
road again.
We met a great guy while we’ve been here
called Raph, you think Darren has travelled a lot then think again as
this guy has been everywhere bar the moon, Oh! & Scotland. Raph's website
So tomorrow were off to Isle De Ometepe, it’s
an island made up of two volcanoes that we mentioned before on our arrival.
Top of page?
|
|
35
|
Wednesday,
23RD October 2002 "Granada"
Not sure why we haven’t
written earlier, but here go's......
We had a great time on the island. The one-day
we did a day trip around the island with a Caribbean guy called Roy in
his open top jeep. He was a very likable fellow and showed us some interesting
places. The roads were terrible; we were bumping around like a machine to
reduce cellulite. It was a really hot day and we were glad to end the
trip with a dip in the lake at sunset. We were on Ometepe for 2 days in
total and each night we went to the cinema. Well, not really, it was just
some guy's shed come video shop. He would arrange two plastic chairs in
front of his 15 inch TV and we would sit and watch the 2 videos for the
evening. He was a smashing old man so we had to pay him double on the
last night. A whopping 50 pence!
We arrived at Granada on the Monday; It’s a
fabulous place. There are lots of original colonial buildings left even
after the wars and hurricanes. The people are really friendly and helpful.
Tuesday we had a big day out. We went to visit Volcan Masaya; it’s a
massive crater that is still very active. Just lately, this month, the
lava has risen to just 1 KM from the surface. Its normally around 5 KM.
Visitors to the crater have to park there cars down hill just in case.
Just last year 120 tourists were viewing the crater when there was an
eruption. Hot rocks were thrown through the air landing in the car park
destroying the cars. Luckily no one was hurt in the incident. We met up
with a couple of guy's who gave us a lift in their 4X4 to the top. We
took a guide who showed us around and took us to some of the restricted
parts. It was quite scary and the air was very toxic. We went over to the
other side of the crater where just one year ago existed a second car
park and viewing point. Today there is just a precipice where we stood
and viewed the mouth of the volcano. The guide told us that the part we
were standing on would collapse with the next big rainstorm! We also
visited a lava tunnel, it was amazing, It was very big, the size of the
underground and had loads of bats.
Were leaving for Leon tomorrow...........
Top of page?
|
|
36
|
Sunday,
26th October 2002 "Honduras"
We stayed in Leon a
couple of days. The atmosphere in Leon was a lot different from Granada;
the city was more run down, but a lot more cultural being a university
city, the first in Nicaragua. We visited the birthplace of one of the world’s
famous poets "Rubin Dario" a great museum if you speak Spanish.
After a terrible days travel, where we nearly
throttled each other or anybody that crossed us, we arrived in the
capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, try and pronounce that one! After arriving
late last night, we were ready to get back on the bus and get the hell
out of here! I think we were very tired though. Today, after a good
nights sleep; we still want to get the hell out of here! Today our
mission, its a hard one being Sunday, is to find the bus station to get
our ticket out of here.
We hope to be going to the Caribbean side of
the country where there’s a nice little island with our names on it. Were
both feeling worn out and a little R&R is needed We think to recuperate
and my tan is fading.
Top of page?
|
|
37
|
Monday,
2ND November 2002 "Bay Islands"
We both had a
fantastic time on the Islands! We spent a week on the larger island of
Roatan. It’s just how you would imagine a Caribbean island, white sand, palm
trees and Turquoise seas. Complete paradise, well apart from the sand
flies, Italian package holiday makers doing aerobics in the sea and as
many yanks as to cause rationing of burger baps.
We met some great people, Everlyn from Roatan,
Kate from London, Paul from Canada, Davy from Northern Island, Calum from
Scotland and our old friend Raph to mention a few. We had a great time
clubbing and drinking together.
We found a great place to stay with the help
of Everlyn. An apartment with Air conditioning and a fridge. The fridge
was great as it allowed us to eat cheaply, salad, every night, so much salad
in fact that my nose is starting to twitch! We had our own little pet spider,
a big black one, right outside our room; just sat they’re staring at us
all night on the balcony. Kate stayed with us as well in an adjoining
room, a great girl even if she does arrange to go to the Airport one hour
before it opens and has us waiting 3 hours to catch our connecting ferry!
Were now staying in Copan, the location of the
second largest Mayan ruins in the world. We haven’t yet explored the
ruins as we have just arrived from the Bay Islands, but should be good.
Just a little info... we’ve been away 4 months
now! We just can’t believe it!!!
Top of page?
|
|
38
|
Tuesday,
12TH November 2002 "El Salvador"
Its been a while since
we last updated the Journal, been having a few problems locating internet
places!
Copan Ruins were fantastic, we can’t
understand why other travellers suggested we skipped them "might
have been the flesh eating Macaws"? On the way in to the Ruins we
were amazed to see around 10 Scarlet Macaws! Each would fly down to the
floor and attack peoples toes as they entered the ruins; apparently they
love shirt buttons as well. The ruins consisted of a group of temples and
pyramids with a "Stairway to heaven" running up the largest
one. I think it’s a monument to that great Mayan King, Rolf Harris. We
spent all day looking around. We even managed to bribe an official to let
us into the archaeological tunnels that run under the temples above. From
there we were able to see even older temples. We don’t understand why
they built new temples on old & taking so much care as not to damage
them even when no one can see them? Why not just build another temple
next to it? Anyway... it was all very impressive.
From Copan we set off to El Salvador with our
friend Raph. We had been told it was a dangerous place and shouldn’t
venture out at night. We had been told that there were lots of guns and machete
yielding thugs, but this didn’t deture us as we new Angel Place on a Saturday
night wasn’t much difference! As it turned out the place and the people
were wonderful. Never have we met such nice people, everyone would say
hello or wish you a good day.
When we first arrived we had a bit of a scary
moment as our taxi driver took us up into the mountains to get to a
national park we wanted to visit. Our guidebooks and other travellers
told us, many We think had never even ventured into El Salvador, not to
go into the mountains as there are armed gorillas. I think it was a kind
of short cut, which never really materialised. The road, well there was
no road to speak of, was long, dusty, bumpy and very remote. It wasn’t
long before we lost the exhaust pipe and had to spend half an hour trying
to remove it as we were stuck on some rocks in the middle of nowhere. Luckily
there were many machete-yielding men to cut through the rubber retainers
to remove it. By this time it was starting to get dark and we were getting
scared we would end up stranded in this alien place. I think the taxi
driver started to panic and drove at break neck speed, which didn’t do
much for our nerves. He was a great bloke though and just laughed at our cries
to slow down.
We visited many ruins in El Salvador, none of
which get many if any foreign visitors. One of which was a Mayan town
that had been covered by volcanic rock, a bit like Pompeii, but the
people managed to run away before being entombed.
After a few days we left for Guatemala. We
stayed at the only Guatemalan beach resort, Monterrico. It wasn’t a bit
like the Caribbean, more like Weston Super Mare. They had a great
Ecological reserve though; we were able to see Iguanas, Turtles & Caymans.
We had decided to go there not for the beach, but to participate in the
weekly Saturday night Turtle race. Each person would pay a quid and have
a baby turtle to race to the sea. Each person would hold there baby
Turtle until the whistle was blown and the winner was the first to cross
the line drawn in the sand on its way to the sea. Ours came 4th, not bad
out of 30. It was amazing to see them making there way out to sea, there
little heads bobbing up and down and then slammed by a 40 ft wave back on
the beach.
From Monterico we left to go to Santa Lucia to
see all the pre Mayan ruins in the area. It was after our 4th or 5th bus
journey that we were thrown off our bus for being Gringo’s. We are pretty
sure that was the reason. As we were stood in the road wondering just
what had happened the police pulled up. They asked us where we were from
and what we were doing in the middle of nowhere in a dangerous area.
After we had established that we were in fact not American, this took a
while as the Police asked us several times, they instructed us to climb
into the back of there car and gave us a lift to the next town. We are
not sure what would have happened if we had been American, but we arrived
safely in Santa Lucia.
Santa Lucia is a nice place it is not at all
touristy so it feels like a very real town. Close by are some really good
pre-Mayan ruins and a very good museum. We set off to find the museum and
stumbled on an army base where Raph asked for directions to the museum.
Luckily he had asked the right man he was the colonel and in charge of
the whole base. He was pleased to hear we were British and quickly got
one of his men to escort us to the museum. What a bazaar thing to happen
but a very nice gesture! The museum was amazing and the stone carvings in
there were superb. Afterwards we went to find a couple more ruins in some
huge cornfields. It took a while and with a bit of help from a few local
people we found them. Darren had a good idea; he wanted to do some
rubbings of the stones, as the pictures were really good. Off we went to
buy paper and wax crayons. Darren and Raph were like things possessed in
the stationary shop buying all the supplies. Then we returned to the
ruins and they were off rubbing like mad! They only had about an hour of
light but they managed to make a lot of rubbings. We left as it got dark
and Darren and Raph were in discussion of what they were going to rub the
next day!!
Top of page?
|
|
39
|
Thursday,
21St November 2002 "Guatemala"
Here we are at last in
Guatemala. It’s always seemed a long way in the distance, but here we are
all the same and it’s only taken us 5 months to get here.
From Santa Lucia we set off to the Real
tourist hotspot of Antigua. Not being so used to tourists after being in
El Salvador in comes as quite a shock. There are hundreds being bussed in
every day and this is the low season. The food here is great though. There’s
a real mix of culinary dishes to be had. Each night we are completely
spoilt, we don’t know to choose from a McDonalds, Burger king or Campero
"a kind of KFC", its just perfect.
Tash has signed on to do a Spanish language
course for a week. There are over 60 Spanish language schools here in Antigua
that gives you some idea of the number of tourists here. Tash has to do
about 4 hours a day at school and has lots of homework. The courses
normally last 3 weeks but we only have sufficient time for a week. I
think the 3 weeks have been condensed into one, as Tash is quite busy.
Since Tash has been studying Darren has been
to Lago de Atitl?. This is another of the hotspots for Guatemala. Lonely
Planet describes it better than We could, " The attraction here is
the absolutely gorgeous calderas lake (a water-filled collapsed volcanic
cone). Since the hippie-dippie days of the 1960s, laid-back travellers
have flocked here to swim in Lago de Atitlan? And generally chill out.
Volcanoes surround the lake, and the town is the starting point for
excursions to the smaller, more traditional indigenous villages on the
western and southern shores of the lake". The town is Panachel and
its a dump, well it could be better. The place is a little to chilled out
for Darren. Nothing really happens here and once you’ve seen the view there’s
nothing else to do. There are loads of want to be hippies that do nothing
all day but sell junk.
Were now back together and tonight were off to
a fiesta at Tash´s School. Friday we plan to head north to Coban were
there are a couple of caves and some Mayan ruins.
Top of page?
|
|
40
|
Sunday,
24Th November 2002 "Flores, Guatemala"
Well, we didn’t go to Coban;
instead we went north to Flores. After reading the book we decided that
we wouldn’t have time to go to Coban, as the roads are dirt tracks. After
a real fun journey of 12.5 hours from Guatemala city involving roadblocks
by police and the fruit police we arrived worn out in Flores. We never expected
it to take so long. We were informed by the travel agent that the journey
would only take eight hours which is long enough, perhaps they didn’t
know about the fruit police that would pull us over with a road block and
insist on everybody getting off and the searching of the bus and luggage
for a stray renegade Granny Smith.
Tomorrow were off to Tikal! Were really
looking forward to this one. Tikal is a huge Mayan city in the middle of
the jungle. We are leaving at 5 in the morning to avoid the rush, as we
are sure there will be hundreds there. We plan to have a picnic there and
so, today, we purchased four large bread rolls, pate and tomatoes. We
then discovered back at the room that we had in fact bought four large
cakes instead of bread! So it should be an interesting picnic tomorrow.
Top of page?
|
|
41
|
Tuesday,
26Th November 2002 "Happy Birthday Jen - Flores, Guatemala"
We had a great day at
Tikal. You can have a look by clicking
here! Obviously the photos aren’t as good as ours but you get an
idea.
The weather wasn’t fantastic it was probably a
godsend in a way as it saved us from the heat of the sun. It was a long
day though as we spent ten hours they’re wondering about. Our legs today
are dead from climbing so many steep temples. The views from the top were
fantastic, lots of temples popping out of the jungle. Some of the temples
are really dangerous and two people have fallen to there deaths in the
past. We managed OK apart from Darren receiving a few bumps and scratches
from going down the fast way on his butt!
We saw lots of Forna and Flora including two Toucans,
Monkeys and large rat things that made Tash hungry.
Were off to Belize tomorrow and were not
planning to stay long as its so expensive, internet alone is nine dollars
an hour and accommodation is in the 20's for a double. We expect to be in
Mexico by Monday and we will probably update the website then.
Happy Christmas shopping!
Top of page?
|
|
42
|
Sunday,
1St December 2002 "Belize & Mexico"
Well, we didn’t spend
as much time as we planned in Belize, only three days! The weather was
not so good in Belize, but we really loved it, the people we met were really
nice towards us. Anyway, while we were there we stayed in San Ignacio
with a family run guesthouse called the Hyatt. It was nothing like the Hyatt
hotel chain but still really nice. They had a crazy Parrot that would
climb up our chairs and attack us if we didn’t feed him. From there we
visited a couple of Mayan sites which were OK but not as good as Tikal or
Copan. From San Ignacio we wanted to go to Caye Caulker which is an
island off the coast, all very nice except it was raining there, so we
decided to forgo Belize and head for some sun in Mexico. We spent the day
on the bus crossing the Mexican Border to Tulum. While on the bus we met
a really nice couple from Sweden "Chris & Karen". We’ve
been staying in Tulum now for a couple of days with our new friends. The
whole time we have spent on the beach & visiting Tulum ruins. Our accommodation
is a little crap! We have to stay in a dorm with our new friends, a young
tattooed girl from Germany and an old man who likes to sleep in our beds
during the day, but at night sleeps outside of the room in a chair with a
plastic sheet over him?
The beaches are fantastic, white sand &
Turquoise waters, a real Christmas setting! Now at last we can appreciate
our summer having missed ours in the depths of Patagonia.
Tomorrow we are off to Cancun to an island for
a couple of days until Tash´s parents arrive "Party, Party, Party!!!”
Top of page?
|
|
43
|
Thursday,
12Th December 2002 "Mexico"
Ho...Ho...Olla!
We've left the island "Isle
Mujeures" and are now living in Cancun. After seeing the local
campsites/bombsites we opted to stay in more plush surroundings in
downtown Cancun. We managed to find a nice apartment at a reasonable
price for the two weeks while Jen & Mike "Tash´s Parents"
are down here on holiday.
Jen & Mike arrived on the 5th and since
then it hasn’t stopped raining, well.... until today, now were as red as Santa’s
coat.
We haven’t let the rain get to us, we have
been busy! On Tuesday we rented a car and went to Chicken Pizza "Chichinitza?
you can have a look by clicking on ME!!!!
It was a really good day out although a really exhausting one as the site
is very large and the Castillo's high, but it didn’t stop Jen from
climbing the steep 91 steps to the top, well done Jen!
Top of page?
|
|
44
|
Tuesday,
24Th December 2002 "Christmas in Mexico"
Ho...Ho...Olla!
Jen & Mike have now gone home after a tearful
goodbye. We all had a brilliant time and things feel really strange
without them here. We managed to do quite a lot while they were here. We
hired the car again for five days! We took in the sights of Tulum, Coba
and playa Del Carman. Jen had a wonderful experience when Tash took her
to Wall mart although when they returned in the car they got done for
speeding and had to bribe the Policeman with twenty dollars. We had a
couple of days sunning ourselves on the Hilton beach, which was
fantastic. Towards the end of the holiday Mike began to feel ill. We
thought it was the Malaria tablets he was taking but we now know it was Pneumonia.
He’s now on strong medication and bed ridden but he’s getting better and
we wish him a speedy recovery and hope it doesn’t spoil his Christmas.
We left Cancun on Friday and arrived in Merida
for the night. Merida is a nice colonial town with a great Cinema where
we saw the Two Towers "brilliant!” We took the night bus from Merida
to Palenque where we saw more Ruins of the Mayan kind. We are now in San
Cristobal. We have been trying to get to the coast for Christmas but we
are stuck here until Boxing day, as the buses are all full! It’s a bit of
a disappointment but thanks to the generosity of our parents we have been
able to stay in a plush hotel for three nights. Its great, we have cable
TV, carpet on the floor, free water, and condiments in the bathroom, hair
dryer and comfy beds. What a Christmas present. We even have money for a slap-up
Christmas meal or two!
Hope everybody is set for the big day tomorrow?
Thank you for all your cards and best wishes, it was really nice to
receive them and brought a little of home here to us! Merry Christmas to
all and have a good one.
Top of page?
|
|
45
|
Friday,
27Th December 2002 "Puerto Escondido"
Yo!
Well we've made it to the coast at last after
a punishing 14-hour bus journey. It’s all pretty mad here with thousands
of Christmas holidaymakers. The beaches, restaurants and hotels are full
of people. If you have ever been to Weston-Super-Mare on a spring bank
holiday then you can understand what we mean!
Were here until Saturday night when we catch
the overnight bus to Acapulco, from they’re its only another seven hours
to Mexico City where we fly out to San Francisco on the second of Jan.
Top of page?
|
|
45
|
Thursday,
2ND January 2003 "Mexico City"
Happy New Year!
The cliff divers in Acapulco were fantastic
although we didn’t see Elvis! Acapulco is a pretty manic place and the buses
are more like discos with strobes, lights and banging bass tunes. The
beaches were OK, but no were near as nice as Cancun and they were also
crowded with the Christmas revellers from Mexico City
Were now in Mexico City and soon leaving for
the airport to go to San Francisco. Mexico City was a real surprise for
us both, in the guidebook it describes it as a very dangerous place and
advises you not to go out side of your hotel after dark, but we didn’t
think so. Our hotel was fantastic, the best yet and only 18 dollars and
yes we had a TV. Yesterday we visited the ruins of Teotihuacan with our
new friend Johnny from Birmingham. We had a really nice day and a new
years day we will never forget. You can read more and even see videos
about Teotihuacan by clicking here!.
Well, today is the 2nd of January and is
exactly six months since we left on our epic adventures. We still can’t
get over the fact that so much time has passed so quickly. If the next
six months are the same then We guess we will be seeing you all very
soon.
Top of page?
|
|
46
|
Monday,
6TH January 2003 "Happy Birthday Tash´s Dad from San Francisco"
YeeeHaaaa!
Hello people, we made it safely to San
Francisco and we are enjoying the sunny weather...yes its sunny, apparently
it had been raining non stop for two weeks prior to us arriving but now
its a lovely 70 degrees!
So far we have seen the sights of Muir Woods,
Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, Knob hill, Pacific Heights and Fisherman’s
Wharf. Were having really good times although it’s a bit out of our
budget. We have extended our stay here due to the fact that we needed to
get our Chinese visa, which we have done now and will be leaving for
Japan on Wednesday. Thinking of you all back at work, stay happy summers
only around the corner.
Top of page?
|
|
47
|
Saturday,
10TH January 2003 "Hello from Japan"
Konnichiwa!
Hello from Japan, we are being a bit cheeky by
using a PC for sale in a shop. We are in the electronics district of
Tokyo and it’s amazing! We have just been looking at phones that have
email, GPS, digital camera inside. We have to go because We think we have
just been sussed. Speak to you soon. Japan is FAB!
Top of page?
|
|
48
|
Sunday
19th January 2003 "Panda's in China"
Ni Hao,
We hadn’t great time in Japan; we stayed in a
traditional guesthouse in Tokyo with rice paper walls, midget table for
tea, mattress on the floor and bathroom slippers.
We managed to get some good bargains on
electrical goods and now Darren is the proud owner of a Casio watch that’s
solar powered, and also has a compass "as he always gets lost",
altitude metre, barometer and also tells the time!
Tash was amazed at the heated toilet seats in
the public loo's, there just techno crazy! The streets at night are just
crazy with giant TV's advertising the latest gadgets and junk. Everything
is really clean too they obviously take pride in things and look after
them and even the underground looked like it was brand new!
We arrived in China on the 14th, since then we
have invested in some warm clothing as its freezing here, last night it
got as cold as -7. We have walked the great wall of China. It was fantastic;
the day was really cold and foggy with snow on the ground. You could see
the orange glow of the sun through the fog and its rays made the walls
come alive. We walked for four hours along its un-restored path; some of
it is at a 70-degree angle and made it really dangerous as in places
there is a 500-metre drop.
Yesterday we visited the world famous Peking/Beijing
Zoo, it was really sad to see all the big cats in cages but we just had
to see some pandas while we were in China. They were much smaller than we
had expected but very cute. They did not move much just sat in a tree and
slept but they looked cute all the same.
Tash cannot wait to try the famous
Peking/Beijing Duck, as it is one of her favourite Chinese meals.
Tomorrow we are off to Xian to see the
Terracotta Warriors. We have to fly there, as all the trains are fully
booked due to the Chinese new year on The 1st Feb. We didn’t expect this
at all and it means that we can’t see much of China as we had planned to.
Top of page?
|
|
49
|
Monday
20th January 2003 "Depression in China"
Ni Hao,
We had a good flight to Xian today but were
shocked at the amount of pollution and the extent of the concrete smeggy
buildings. We can’t believe that people live like this? It is far worse
than anything we have experienced before; we both have developed coughs
since arriving.
We have a week here in sunny Xian to visit the
Terracotta Warriors and nearby sights that is if we can see them through
the smog. You can read more about the Army by clicking here!.
Sorry to go on about the smog, but We cant believe
they are going to hold the 2008 Olympics here? You wouldn’t see who
finished the 100M and it could be very dangerous in the javelin contest.
So much work is already in progress for the big day in 2008, they have
knocked down many traditional buildings to widen the streets ready for
the torch.
Its soon to be the Chinese new year and with
it comes the year of the Goat. Were not all sure what that entails but
Darren is a goat! Could explain a few things.
Top of page?
|
|
50
|
Wednesday 22nd
January 2003 "Smog in China"
Ni Hao,
Today the sun finally showed its face through
the smog, although all it did was prove just how dirty the city really
is. Everything here is just covered with grey soot, all the plants and
buildings are just covered, its real nasty looking!
Anyway, on a much litter note...Today we
visited the Shaanxi museum; you can read more by clicking here. It was pretty amazing, Darren's favourite was
the 300 warrior figures from the Ming Dynasty and Tash liked a Ming vase.
Many of the items looked as if they were from the 60's as they looked
like Better Ware? We also visited a pagoda, the biggest in Xian. It was
also a foot deep in grime but had some nice grounds!
Tomorrow we are off to the Banpo village to
see what rural life are like, probably smog, grime and pitchforks! We
hope there is a KFC as we are both smitten with the cornels Zinger
burgers, you can try some of the colonels recipes by visiting his site by
clicking here,
or alternatively by visiting many of his restaurants around the world!
Top of page?
|
|
51
|
Friday
24th January 2003 "Xian Warriors"
Hello Folks,
Today we visited the Terracotta Warriors! They
were awesome, you can learn more by clicking here. We spent an hour on the local bus where we were
able to see the rural areas of China. It was not a pretty site. We saw
more construction everywhere. We are still amazed at the way everyone
spits on the floor even on shop floors they just don’t care where they
spit!
We have exhausted the sights in Xian so for
the next 2 days we are going to relax.
Top of page?
|
|
52
|
Sunday
26th January 2003 "Too Much KFC!!"
Hello,
It's our last day in Xian, Yippee!!!!
Actually, it hasn’t been that bad.... what am We
saying, its been..... Well, interesting at least! Today we had a walk
along the only surviving city wall in China, the weather was quite nice
for a change, only a bit of snow and freezing high winds to blow the smog
away. From the wall we could see old grotty houses and a couple of
markets, it was like watching a film.
Tomorrow morning at 9, we fly back to Beijing.
It’s with Air China and were both very scared only joking! The last
flight wasn’t too bad although the pilot seemed as though he was flying a
simulator rather than the actual airplane by the way he was banking the
plane. Taxiing was a scary affair as we screeched around the airport at
high speed!
Here are some interesting things people might
say about China!
Nine out of the ten worlds worst polluted
cities are found in China, estimates people might make are that by 2005
China will become the world’s largest polluter. Tests conducted by the
World Health Organisation (WHO) show levels of air pollution at 526
micrograms per sq metre, the safe limit is just 60-90. Acid rain, but its
not just China that is affected affects Forty percent of the country,
Japan and Korea have also condemned the pollution. The problem is coal,
seventy percent of Chinas energy comes from coal, and over 900 million tons
per year are burnt to make energy. The problem is also natural as 200 million
tons of coal go up in flames in uncontrollable underground fires in
northern China contributing to global warming.
Top of page?
|
|
53
|
Saturday
7th February 2003 "Hot Sunshine in Thailand"
Hello,
On our last night in Beijing we went along to
watch the Acrobatics show, it was fantastic, we can’t believe how they
bend and twist into those positions. It was really cheap, only ten pounds
for the show and we made sure that we arrived early to get a good seat.
Our ten pound ticket was the cheapest there and it proved to be fine as
we were seated in plush purple seats in the middle of the theatre on our
own, the only distracting thing were the other hundreds of people sat
around in the aisles, who must of thought we were the entertainment as
all they did is stare at us until the show started.
We certainly wont be missing the food in
China, only the other day we were sat having a plate of slop when a
cockroach landed on Tash´s head, she didn’t waist any time gobbling it up
as anything is better than the stuff they serve here, although we did
enjoy the Beijing Duck.
At last we have left China! We had a fantastic
flight with Thai airways, they really looked after us. We managed to
consume a large amount of alcohol during the flight and felt quite drunk
by the time we arrived in Bangkok. It was quite late by the time we
managed to track down a room that wasn’t full, but not late enough for
the pubs to shut so we toasted our arrival into the early hours of the
morning.
Today we have secured a bus ticket to Chang
Mai for Monday. It’s the first leg of our journey around Indo China. We
were originally going to Cambodia first but the border has been closed
due to an incident that happened last week. We read in the paper that a famous
Thai actress had said that the temple Angkor Watt belonged to Thailand,
in outrage the Cambodian people burnt down the Thai embassy and Thailand
evacuated its entire people and closed the borders. We expect the borders
to reopen by the time we get to Cambodia from Vietnam, but we are
flexible!
Top of page?
|
|
54
|
Monday
10th February 2003 "Off to Laos!"
Hello,
Today we are setting off on our journey around
Indo China. Our bus leaves at 6.30 "+7 GMT" to Chang Mai. It
takes 12 hours by bus to get there! We've left most of our stuff in Bangkok,
as We don’t think we will need thermal underwear and fleeces, we just
hope it will be here when we come back! It’s in the Nat II guesthouse; so
if anything happens to us, help yourselves! We're only joking, we are
sure we will be fine.
We've watched several films since we’ve been
here Bangkok, our guest house the Nat II shows 10 films a day, one after
the other, we find it difficult to venture out as we both love Movies.
The food is great here; we’ve had some great meals although the portions
are not big enough for us. We are eating as many as five meals a day, but
We don’t think we have any chance of putting on any weight!
Since being here, we have visited the Royal
Palace "click here for picture". Although Darren has seen it
before, Tash was really be-dazzled by it all "the best temple she's
seen yet" she said. There were many people here but we think we got
some good photos.
Tash had an adventure yesterday, she went
shopping, and something Darren couldn’t bare doing. Tash had to catch a
river taxi along the Chao Phraya for 45 minutes, a pretty mad experience
by all accounts as it’s so busy with traffic. She really enjoyed it,
although it was a useless journey as all the shops were closed, as it was
Sunday.
More stuff can be found about the palace here.
Top of page?
|
|
55
|
Saturday
15th February 2003 "Laos and its Beautiful!"
Hello,
We had a great journey on the boat down the
Mekong river, it lasted two days and the scenery was fantastic. We stayed
in a little village called Pekong; it was really remote with jungle
surrounding us. They had a great menu and Darren tried the Buffalo curry,
it was a bit chewy but edible. We met two nice lads from south London
called Barry and Barrie. We are now all staying in Luang Probang. The
place and the people are cool and friendly. We are heading to Vientiane
on Monday, which is a 10-hour bus journey in the day. We wish we had more
time to spend in Laos as it seems a fantastic place and the people are genuinely
friendly.
Top of page?
|
|
56
|
Sunday 22nd
February 2003 "Vietnam!"
Hello,
Sorry its' been a while, but we’ve been on the
move!
We had a great time in Laos; the best thing
for Darren was the night we went to a hostess club. There were around 20
young girls, all dressed in traditional Laos clothes brandishing their
number. Men would enter alone and then select a partner for the evening,
all above board you understand!
We could not quite get to grips with there
money, the Kip! At ten thousand Kip to a pound it was very easy to become
a millionaire. Its the only place in the world we have seen were they
have plastic bag dispensers on the counter in the bank. To see people
leaving you would think they had just been to the supermarket.
Most of our time was spent with our new
friends, Barry & Barrie; we really enjoyed their company and hope to
see them at a full moon party, very soon.
We had one hiccup on the way; Tash lost her
new boots, so now all she has to wear are her sandals! We spent a couple
of hours reporting it to the police in Savannakhet. It was a new experience
for both of us and one we would not like to repeat!
We had a long journey yesterday from
Savannakhet to Hue in Vietnam, the roads were terrible and it was very
hot and dusty! We soon made friends with everybody on the bus through our
prolonged agony. When we crossed the border into Vietnam the scenery
changed dramatically, from flat to lush green mountains, very beautiful!
The people are very friendly and are always trying to get you to use their
taxi, tut tut or take you on a tour. They haven’t yet learnt
"NO" means "NO!".
Top of page?
|
|
57
|
Friday
28th February 2003 "Saigon - The VC tunnel experience!"
Hi,
Still here in Vietnam! We had a couple of days
in Hue. We saw the purple palace, a bit of a disappointment, as most of
it wasn’t there as it was destroyed in a war. It seemed very much like
the palaces we’ve already seen in China! We left Hue on another long bus
journey to a seaside town of Nha Trang. We spent two days there on the
beach and Darren managed to burn is forehead and now looks very peculiar
with a white patch on his head. We left there and took another very long
bus journey to Saigon were we arrived at five in the morning. Saigon is a
nether crazy metropolis with thousands of bikes going in every direction,
there are over one million bikes in Saigon alone and 35 deaths a day in
Vietnam due to traffic! Today we went on a tour of the VC tunnels and a
church dedicated to a small sect of religious nutters! Not really, they
were very nice but there were no people younger than 80? The VC stuff was
fascinating, it was a shame we couldn’t fit into any of the tunnels, as
we would have liked to have a look at what all the fuss was about, after
all we did pay 5 dollars to see them. Darren got excited when he saw a
Huey, and climbed on top to have his photo taken with it. He also tried
on a M16 for size but thought five dollars to shoot it was too steep.
Tomorrow we are on a tour of the Mekong Delta
on our way to Cambodia.
We’ve had some bad news about Nepal and we
will have to cancel our trip there! Below is an extract of the Warning!
The Maoist uprising in Nepal has intensified,
making a trekking trip a dicey proposition. Clashes continue between the
military and the rebels in the six-year-old conflict that has claimed at
least 4,000 lives. The battles have taken place mainly in the countryside,
but there have also been bombings in the capital, Kathmandu.
The rebels made international headlines in
mid-2001 following violent attacks on foreign tourists. A ceasefire
negotiated in August 2001 collapsed, leading to a rise in armed robbery
and violence by Maoist guerrillas, including several deadly attacks on
government forces. Businesses and NGOs affiliated with the USA have also
been targeted.
Nepal has been plagued by tragedy since June
2001, when Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed King Birendra and eight
other members of the royal family. While the country was in shock and
mourning, the rebels took advantage of the chaos to expand their
campaign. In November 2001, King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency
and issued a 'Terrorist and Destructive Activities' ordinance,
designating the Maoist Nepal Communist Party a terrorist organization.
The rebels have threatened tourist facilities
throughout Nepal and Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai has warned tourists
they could be 'caught in the crossfire of the contending armies,' while
perversely encouraging them to visit anyway. In April 2002, three groups
of trekkers (from the US, Switzerland and Spain) were robbed at gunpoint
by rebels.
The Nepalese government has appealed for
international aid in fighting the rebels, and several nations including
the US and the UK have agreed to help. The government also reinstated a
State of Emergency.
The US State Department is advising US
citizens to stay away if possible. The UK and Australian governments are
advising their citizens to exercise caution in the area (especially due
to its proximity to India and Pakistan). If you must go, remain cautious
and avoid public gatherings. Trekking and travelling at night outside the
Kathmandu Valley are not recommended. The districts of Banke, Dang
Syangja, Surkhet, Rukum, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Rolpa, Salyan and Gorka are
considered especially dangerous.
India also has similar troubles and we feel it
is too risky to make the journey from Kathmandu so we are trying to fly
home from Bangkok in July!
Top of page?
|
|
58
|
Thursday
6th March 2003 "Cambodia - Angkor Watt"
Hello,
Well our tour on the Mekong Delta wasn’t the
best tour in the world, in fact it was pretty terrible, most of the time
was spent travelling on a cramped bus.
On the second day we entered Cambodia in the
capitol Phnom Phen. We made a few friends on the bus, Steve and Lisa from
Oz, Keith & Kalpesh from London. We had a great day there, we went to
one of the only places in the world were you can actually fire a grenade
launcher amongst other dangerous toys! Darren had a go with an AK 47, but
the menu had a great selection of M16, M60, Grenades, K54, AK47, Sprite
and Coca Cola, one dollar one bullet! It was all a bit strange but
enjoyable.
We were glad we visited the shooting range
first as our next port of call was to be the Killing Fields! It was a
terrible sight! A 90-foot memorial made of glass full of human skulls.
These were uncovered in just one killing field, there are many more
around Cambodia. You can find out more about the Killing Fields by
clicking here.
We left Phnom Phen by bus to Siam Reap. From
here you can Visit Angkor Watt. Which is exactly what we've been doing
for the last few days! Its on a huge site and takes a long time to see it
all. It was very nice although the 45 + degree heat did make you feel
otherwise! It was fascinating to see the entire tree's growing over the
ruins. We took plenty of photographs! You can find out more about Angkor Watt
by clicking here.
Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok, another 10
hrs on the Bus, but we don’t mind as it's to meet one of our best
friends, Andrew, who fly's in on the 10th! Were looking forward to a
relaxing time just sitting on the beaches, but We think Andrew has other
plan's!
Top of page?
|
|
59
|
Wednesday
12th March 2003 "Andrew meets Thailand!"
Hello,
Andrew made it! Andrew our friend from home
arrived on Monday to Bangkok! He was already sweating when he arrived at
the airport and now is melting on the beaches of Koh Phang nan. He hopes
to do some swimming, snorkelling and drinking Thai whiskey and some other
stuff, but we won’t mention that! We spent an eternity getting to the
island, 19 hrs by bus and boat. The boat had no roof and we are all a bit
sunburnt now.
Top of page?
|
|
60
|
Wednesday
19th March 20003 "Full Moon Party!"
Hello,
We are having a sun drenched time in Koh
Phangan. Andrew is having a great time and is not looking forward to
going home. We have bumped into our good friends Barry and Barrie again,
it was really good to see them again.
We had a new experience on Monday night,
the" Full Moon Party". Every month thousands of people from
around the island and neighbouring islands all descend onto Hadrin beach (which
is where we are staying). The party lasts all night and everyone gets
very drunk and dances a lot!! As you can probably guess we did exactly
that. We are now recovered and are staying off the drink for a while!
Top of page?
|
|
61
|
Friday
28th March 20003 "Run to Burma!"
Hello,
Andrew has finally left us..... He had a
wicked time but has to go back to work, shame.
We have now left Hadrin beach and Koh Phangan altogether.
We have been staying in Kao Sok National Park. It’s been really nice
staying in the jungle for a few days although it's quite wet. We did a
couple of walks around the park, the waterfall one being the longest at
17km, it started off alright but soon became a nightmare with the trail
head turning into a leech infested climb! The leeches would literally run
after you and jump on you, there were also bee's that would land and lick
the salt off you if you stopped for longer than a second, much to Tash´s
screaming delight as she fell into the river trying to escape injuring
her leg. If you want, you can click here
and see some photos, they’re not ours but you get an idea of what it was
like! The hut was very much like the one we stayed in!
After a nice relaxing time there we set about extending
our visa in Thailand as we were only given a month on arrival from
Cambodia. To do this simple task we had to leave Khao Sok National Park
and travel by local bus to Takua Pa from there we got an air con bus to
Ranong. It’s from Ranong that we can leave Thailand for Burma across the Andaman
sea to get a new visa on entry back into Thailand. So we took a taxi from
he bus station to immigration and then a taxi to the dock were we caught
the boat across to an island for the immigration in Burma (Myanmar) where
we had to pay five dollars for a Myanmar visa. Then it was back in the
boat, across to the mainland of Burma for another stamp? It was time for
a beer, so we found a nice restaurant opposite Victoria point to relax
for half an hour, then back in the boat, back to the island, another
check, back in the boat again and across to Thailand for immigration and
our new visa. With our new visa we barely had time for dinner and a look
around before racing back to the bus station again for a nine and a half
hour journey to back to Bangkok, what a day!
Top of page?
|
|
62
|
Saturday
12th April 2003 "Jenny & Vanya come out to play!"
Yo!
We’ve had a busy time of it over the last 12
days as our friends Jenny & Vanya came out to see us on the 31st
March from home. It’s been a pretty manic exercise, as they wanted to see
all the sights in just a short period.
Darren & Tash´s tour started with a trip
to the floating market, it was a really touristy place as there were more
tourists than market sellers but good fun or the same. We couldn’t leave
without getting a tacky plate with our photo on it to put with one
Darren's parents got a couple of years ago when they visited the market.
In the afternoon we visited the Royal Palace, the reclining Buddha and
the Emerald Buddha temple. In the evening we met up with our good friends
the Bazza's and downed a few beers.
The next day we went on a three-day tour of
the Kanchanaburi province. This included a visit to the Bridge On The
River Kwai; I imagine many of you have enjoyed the academy award winning
film titled "The Bridge on the River Kwai". For those who may
not have seen it, it’s a story of allied POW’s in a Japanese prison camp
in Burma. The POW’s are being used as forced labour to complete a
railroad bridge across the River Kwai. The Japanese critically needed to
complete the railroad bridge for their supply route from Singapore and
Bangkok to the India Burma front to counter Lord Louis Mount batten’s
army forces operating from India. There was also a museum there, which
had some good information and relics from the war. We also visited the
POW cemetery in Kanchanaburi; it was really shocking to see all the gravestones.
In the afternoon we went to the Hell Fire Pass. You can find out more
about the Hell Fire Pass by clicking here.
In the evening we went to our accommodation "Big Mama's" which
was a reed raft on the river, it was very scary for some as the river
would rise and fall with the operation of the hydroelectric dam upstream.
When the dam was on full power the water would rise so that the gang
plank onto the raft was submerged by a couple of feet and the speed of
the water was frightening and a man had to carry Vanya and the girls
across, only joking! Big Mama was a big lady and she liked her food, just
as well as we did too. It wasn’t long before Paul, our new friend from
London and we were on our second helping of rice and veg. After dinner we
had a bit of a singsong under the stars and went to bed on our reed raft.
We all had a good night sleep.....well, apart
from Vanya that is...He woke up every hour just to check that the raft hadn’t
drifted away and looked quite relieved in the morning to find himself
still in the land of the living. Our first port of call was a cave, it
was ok, nothing as good as Wooky Hole. After lunch we went to see the dam
that was making Vanya's life such a misery and then to the market to buy
our supplies for dinner.
On our last day in the Kanchanaburi province
we went elephant riding through the jungle. We all thoroughly enjoyed it especially
the elephants when we bought it a load of bananas and sugar cane. Next we
went bamboo rafting on the river although it was more like river swimming
as we all soon jumped off our rafts into the water, it was really good
fun. We were then taken to a train station were we had lunch and then
caught the famous death railway across the bridge. It was a really
enjoyable experience as you could stand on the steps to the train and
hang out over the passes.
Back at Bangkok we arranged our transportation
for the next day to Koh Pee Pee. We took the night bus back to Surat tani
and from there to Krabi and then a ferry to PP. The buses were really
nice and comfortable and we all slept well although we did have a shock
when we arrived in Krabi as Tash´s traveller’s cheques had been stolen
along with forty pounds in cash. They also took other stuff from Darren's
bag including a present from Jenny and Vanya. We spent a couple of hours
at the police station reporting it but didn’t seemed to care one bit,
they just gave us another report for our insurance. We did cancel the
cheques straight away and arranged to get them back.
We finally arrived at PP by 4.30 to find
everything the guidebook tells you is true, Koh San road with a beach.
Vanya took us too a bungalow away from the stench for the night. It was an
OK place although the owners could do with smiling a bit more.
The next day we had a lovely day on Long beach,
although Jenny & Vanya did get a little burnt and spent the next day
avoiding the sun. On the Wednesday we did a boat trip around the islands
stopping off at various points to do some snorkelling. It was fantastic
to see all the fish and coral, at one point people were scared to go into
the water because of the numbers of fish, you just couldn’t see a space
to jump into it was that crowded.
On Jenny & Vanya's last day we went to the
viewpoint over the island and to an expensive meal of fish in the evening
to say goodbye. On Friday we travelled to Phuket by ferry so Jenny &
Vanya could catch a plane to Bangkok to catch there flight home. Tash
collected her traveller’s cheques up OK although she did have to wait an
hour for all the paper work to be done. In the evening we went to see the
Core, what a terrible film although we were happy to just sit there and
switch off for 90 minutes........
Sunday we're off to a little cove on Phuket,
the guidebook makes it sound like bliss, very beautiful, quite, clean and
relaxed, perfect!
Top of page?
|
|
63
|
Monday
14th April 2003 "Coconut ice-cream sandwiches"
Hi,
We have found paradise, its called Surin
beach. Were staying in a fantastic room, we have TV, AC and a fridge all
for less than 3 pounds a night. The beach is fantastic, golden sand and crystal
clear water with our own sun beds and umbrella supplied by the guesthouse
free of charge and no idiot tourists to be found. As you can probably
guess we have chosen to stay here a few days or maybe a week. We had a
great time getting here as it was the Thai new year and they celebrate it
by soaking each other and us with cold water. We got absolutely soaked
but it was good fun.
Today we had our first ever taste of a coconut
ice cream sandwich toped with sweet corn and peanuts? It was surprisingly
nice?
Top of page?
|
|
64
|
Tuesday
22nd April 2003 "My moped is phuket'd "
Hello,
Haven’t done much lately except hired a moped
around the island, it was great fun for whoever was riding but not much
fun for the person on the back! We both took turns riding and did a tour
of the islands. There are some crappie resorts around Phuket but we
enjoyed our little excursion all the same!
We are now back in Krabi, we don’t have fond
memories of Krabi after being robbed. Today we went to a lovely beach
called Tail Laiy, it had some lovely accommodation but was very expensive
at 50 quid a night. Tomorrow we leave for the border as our visa runs out
shortly. So we are off to Malaysia. We have decided to make a run for
Nepal as it sounds as though things are a lot calmer now. We are a little
tired of Thailand now. We hope to get there within the next couple of
weeks.
Top of page?
|
|
65
|
Saturday
26th April 2003 "Penang Malaysia"
Hello,
We’ve managed to get to Malaysia; we did it
the longest way possible We think? We left Satun for Langkawi by boat.
The crossing took about an hour but we had to wait three hours at the dock,
as the boat didn’t arrive until one. Once we arrived at our destination
we went straight to KFC and had a Zinger burger.
Looking at our options to stay, we decided
that Langkawi was a bit out of our price bracket and we opted to make our
way straight to Penang, another two and a half hours by ferry. We were
only in Langkawi for half an hour in total.
Were now in Penang, Darren had no trouble
finding his way around again and we soon found a place to stay. Since
arriving we’ve done nothing but shop, eat and go to the cinema.
Top of page?
|
|
66
|
Wednesday
2nd May 2003 "Back in Thailand"
Hello,
We are now in Chaiya, we came here on the
train. The journey was hot and sticky as there was no AC. It took us six
hours on the hot train, the only comfort was that you could open the
windows but this made it very noisy and you got covered in dead bugs that
would fly towards the lights of the train. When we arrived it was late
and there was hardly a soul around. All we wanted to do was find a place
to stay and have a shower to wash the bugs and sweat off. There were two
policemen who directed us to our hotel. Luckily for us the hotel was
open, but had no running water until the morning. Today we went to see
the ruins of two Watts, which dated from the eighth century; they were
not very big or very impressive. Tomorrow we leave on the train again;
this one has AC, to Hua Hin where the King lives. Its Thailand’s first
beach resort so it should be good.
Top of page?
|
|
67
|
Friday 9th
May 2003 "Off to Nepal"
Yo!
From Hua Hin we went north again to Petanburi
for one night and then back to Bangkok.
Tomorrow we are off to NEPAL! We leave here at
10.30 GMT+6 and arrive at 12.30 GMT + 5. Our guide is meeting us at the
airport. He's going to take us to a cheap place to stay, as it's a bit expensive
in the capital. Darren is really excited about it; he can’t wait to get
there! Not sure what trek were going to do but we want to trek at least 2
weeks above 3000M! We have now picked up all our gear that we left in
Bangkok. We can’t believe how heavy the bags are now. Today we sent a
parcel home full of presents for everybody, we were shocked at the cost,
24 pounds for just 3Kg's, still it's better than carrying it around.
Top of page?
|
|
68
|
Sunday
11th May 2003 "Trekking in Nepal"
Namaste!
Well, this is it! Were off on our adventure
around Annapura. We will be setting off on Tuesday morning and won’t be
back for 20 days. On the trek we will be scaling a 5450M pass and visit
some of the highest temple's on the earth. So goodbye for now, speak to
you again on the other side!
You can find out more about Annapurna by
clicking here.
Top of page?
|
|
69
|
Sunday 1st
June 2003 "Nepal "
Namaste!
Were back!
We had a fantastic time trekking around the
mountains and took 16 days in the end. We would have done 21 but Tash´s
feet suffered with bad blisters. Our guide Yadab was fantastic, he really
did look after us and if it wasn’t for him we are sure we wouldn’t have made
it. The trek proved very difficult and involved some difficult crossings
of landslides and of course the high pass which is one of the highest
passes for trekkers in the world. We both suffered from altitude sickness
at 5000M and we were not sure if we would make it around, but we did. We
met some fantastic people on the trek Fabians and Michael from Germany,
Martin and Linda from Sweden, Tony and Owen from home and the Spanish
couple and there porter who we never knew there names.
We are leaving soon to India where they are
having a heat wave.
Top of page?
|
|
70
|
Saturday
7th June 2003 "India - Varanasi "
Namaste!
Well.......gosh! Only 24 days left? Where as
it all gone too? I haven’t got a clue?
We are now in India, a fact that we find hard
to contemplate! Although we did have a horrendous journey here. We are
now staying in Varanasi, only another 400 miles to go to Delhi! Yesterday
crossing the border was bad, we got ripped off on the bus tickets and had
to buy them again, the customs stopped us and the bus was cancelled and
when we did finally leave it took us 10 hours to get here at 2100 and we
left at 5 in the morning! To make matters worse we were taken to the
wrong guesthouse and had to get back in a rickshaw and travel across town
to where we wanted to go. It was a pretty mad experience!
Varanasi is a pretty mad place, Hindu pilgrims
come from all over the world to give birth or die in the River Ganga.
There are some pretty mad sights to be seen at dawn with people being
cremated on the riverbanks. Some 45000 people a year are burnt here and
tossed into the river. As you can imagine the river is very polluted with
body parts? In the evening people go to the waters edge to bathe and put
little candles on the river. We haven’t worked out why they do this but
it looks nice. Luckily we haven’t seen anybody giving birth yet, We think
we will be happy to miss this.
We have already tried to get a reservation on
the trains for Agra and the Taj. Hopefully it will not cause us any
problems as the number of tourists is low at the moment due to the heat
wave, although in Varanasi it is causing big problems as many as 200
people are being cremated due to people dieing from the heat.
We are both really looking forward to coming
home now. We can’t stop thinking about the things we will do, the people
we will see and the food we can eat!
Top of page?
|
|
71
|
Sunday 8th
June 2003 "India - Death on the River Ganga!"
Namaste!
Yesterday we took a boat ride on the river
Ganga at sunset to see all the pilgrims bathing in the river. We were horrified
at what we saw! To our horror there was a naked dead woman floating face
down in the water. Her body was all blown up and sunburnt. Her lower legs
were missing with just her bones sticking out. We were pretty unlucky to
see this, as usually the police will remove the bodies. It was quite a
big issue as it appeared in the national papers. We also saw another body,
which was rapped in cotton sheets so it wasn’t so horrific. Apparently,
if you don’t die from natural causes you can’t be burnt, the woman was
probably thrown into the river with weights, which became loose and she
floated to the surface. We also saw dead cows, which had died from disease
It was a great shock for both of us and we found it difficult to sleep
last night especially as we had visitors. Three monkeys decided to sleep
on our windowsill and scared us to death.
Also.... While we were out browsing around the
shops we suddenly heard a great buzz and a bang! Lots of people started
to run and shout "a monkeys dead". Darren ran to have a look at
the monkey, which had electrocuted itself by swinging on the wires. As
Darren got to a courtyard doorway this man ran through with this dripping
wet beast and soaked him to the skin with it. Apparently they were
rushing it to a well were they would soak it and give it water. We
watched the crowd of people trying to resuscitate it for a while but it
looked a grim fate for the monkey. We guess it will end up in the river
Ganga with all the other corps.
We’ve managed to get our train ticket to Agra
now, we both feel a bit happier to be nearer to Delhi. We will leave on
Tuesday on a sleeper train. Also the monsoons have started and the temperature
is dropping quite quickly so we should be able to visit Rajas tan.
Top of page?
|
|
72
|
Sunday
15th June 2003 "India - Chewits, Chewyer than the Taj Mahal!"
Namaste!
We left Varanasi on Tuesday for Agra and the
Taj Mahal. The train journey was good and we arrived in Agra at 6.30 AM.
It was a relief to see our names on the outside of the train when we
arrived at the station; we hadn’t been ripped off again! We went on a
class called 3AC where we slept on fold down beds. Tash was on the bottom
and Darren was in the middle and above us was a middle aged stuck up
snotty pompous windbag, a man we didn’t see eye-to-eye with! When we
arrived at Agra we were pleased to see two friends we had met trekking
while in Nepal, Martin & Linda! We all went to the same hotel and
caught up with each other’s news over breakfast.
We visited the sights of Agra fort, Sikri and
not forgetting the Taj Mahal. Agra fort and Sikri were OK but nothing to
write home about, We think we are getting a little tired of seeing ruins.
The Taj on the other hand was fantastic. It was simply beautiful and from
a distance not at all real. We arrive early at 6AM and avoided the
crowds. Martin took some lovely photos of us on Diana's seat in front of
the Taj. To explore the Taj Mahal click here.
We are now in Jaipur, which was only a five-hour
bus journey west of Agra. Jaipur is dusty and very hot. We are staying in
a nice hotel though; it used to be a palace. We have a TV and the use of
a swimming pool all for six pounds a night, not bad a? We are leaving for
Udaipur on Wednesday for a week and then to Delhi to catch our flight
home.
Check out our hotel here.
Top of page?
|
|
73
|
Sunday
22ND June 2003 "India - Udaipur, Rajas tan"
Namaste!
Darren’s was very ill in Jaipur with nasty
Delhi belly. He was bed ridden for two days but Tash nursed him back to
health.
We had a good train journey to Udaipur. We
found a nice hotel with a pool and we plan to spend our last few days in
India chilling out.
Top of page?
|
|
74
|
Monday
30th June 2003 "India - We're coming home!"
Namaste!
Well, this is it our last day of travelling.
We have had a nice time in Delhi, lots of
shopping and fast food. We even managed to get a beer yesterday; we have
been without for three weeks. We will not miss the heat and we are
looking forward to a cooler climate back home.
We look forward to seeing you all at the
barbeque on Saturday!
Thank you again for visiting our website! Stay
tuned for the party photos!
This is Tash & Darren signing out!
Top of page?
|
|
