Peru, Peru, we love you so we do.

From the comfort and relative distance of the small town surfer town of Montañita in Ecuador, I am finally getting my act togerher and getting this blog up to date. This means writing about our time in Peru and on reflection it was really one of the best countries for me in South America. Peru offers SO much to the average visitor, and its been one of the most enjoyable places for us. Theres so much diversity in the landscapes and locations all around the country, similar to Bolivia, but there are certain things that put Peru a notch above its neighbours, in my book anyway. Firstly, Machu Pichu, the "lost city of the incas", hidden deep in the mountains in the Urubamba valley is one of the most striking, impressive, and atmospheric places I have ever been (more on that later). The nearby town of Cusco, altough full of tourists, is like Peru´s cultural capital and a great place to spend some time in. We ended up setting up base there in our nice quiet wee family house type hostel on avenida del sol - where somebody has to get up out of bed to let you in at night, happened a lot - and staying in cusco for 2 weeks! We finally managed to drag ourselves out of cusco and, after saying goodbye to two unreplacable members of the family (Sarah and Zoe headed back to ingleterra), and we headed east and finally came down to a lower altitude, ears popping all the way on the 24 hour bus ride away from the stinging cold heights of the andes, toards a town called Ica. Here you can find the largest sand dunes in south america. You take a tour in a dune buggy and if that doest rattle you enough you can rent a sandboard and fling yourself down the ridiculously steep slopes, ending up rolling down mostly and getting sand in places you never thought sand should go....

After Ica we continued up the coast towards the countries capital, Lima. We ended up spending a very enjoyable week there thanks to our good friend Pablo, who played host to us for 6 days and let us stay in his house. It as great to finally be in an actual house for the first time in months.... Lima is a HUGE city and thankfully Pablo did a great job showing us around, driving us mostly to the best parts of the city, giving us a chance to get a taste for the different barrios/neighbourhoods and some nights out in some very cool places. In the downtime, of which there was a lot, we basically did 2 things; watched DVDs and played pro evolution football on Pablos playstation. Oh, then there were the two actual football games that we played against Pablos friends ; and in both games hammered the peruvians 11-3 and then 7-0....these games took so much out of me that I ended up getting a flu after over-excerting myself in the second one....for Ali and Quinny it as just a run around, they really enjoyed themselves.

Onwards and upwards then and by now we were getting quite excited about the prospect of leaving all that high altitude mountain and city life behind and getting to the coast for sun, sand and surf. I cant really surf, it just sounds right to say that. More accurate would be sun, sand, beer, ballantines and sleeping in....We went directly by overnight bus (overnight buses by now are second nature to us; 16 hours, 20 hours, I will never again complain about the horrors of a bus eireann journey which might strech a whole 5 or 6 hours across our wee island) to Mancora, in the very north of Peru, close to the border with Equador. A nice little surf town, Mancora is known for its year round sun shine and right after arriving we got straight into the aul shorts and flip flops, and down to the beach, cold beer and suncream. Nice. No more wooly jumpers a la bolivia or cusco, thank you very much!!

So there you have it. Peru has been a blast. Diverse, like Bolivia, but offering so much more...and this was only a summary of what we got up to... Trekking, Quad biking, mountain biking, white water rafting, big city night life, small surfer town hippie life...and more....Peru will exci- wait a minute....im starting to sound really like a cheesy advert for the country, like some paid advertising monkey to boost tourism, so ill stop right there. you get the point. Peru = cool

Hasta luego (till next time)

Brian

Looking out at the Salt Flats from isla de pescala

This and more photos of the salt flats and rest of Bolivia and Argentina can be seen on my facebook album... heres the public link;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258373&id=887685205&l=5d86abffd8

Chattin to the goats

A little clip of me attempting to make conversation with the goats up in some mountain farm during our horse riding with Enrique in Salta, Argentina.

Salar de Uyuni

Along the tourist trail in Bolivia one of the most visited places is the Salar de Uyuni, or the Salt Flats as its known in English. It is the worlds largest salt flat at 10,582 km squared. We visited it from Uyuni (hence the name) which is the town most people access it by. The town seems to exist solely for the purposes of tourism, and its a cold, dry deserted place which I would advise anybody to only spend a minimal amount of time in. Altough most people take a 3 day tour, we were advised ny a few people that one day is really enough to get out to the middle of the flats, experience it and get back before you get stranded out in the night cold! We left (realtively) early in the day and drove out of Uyuni about an hour, along the abandoned train tracks to get to the salt flats. We stopped on the outer fringes of the flats for half an hour so the locals could tempt us to buy their merchandise of al paca clothing and souvenirs fashioned out of salf. On we drove then into the heart of the flats stopping along the way to get out of our 4x4 and really experience the vastness of it all.

At one point I walked away from the group for about 10 minutes in no particular direction, just towards nothing. After a while I was completely alone in the middle of the desert and the rest of my group and the car were but speckles on the horizon a few hundread meters back. It was one of the most eerily quiet yet serene settings Ive ever found myself. If I was into meditation, I´d imagine it would have been a perfect place to do it.

Towards the end of the day our guide brought us to isla de pescado; a strange cactus filled "island" in the middle of the salar. Here you can climb for 10 minutes to get to the peak (avoiding the huge cacti) where you find an amzing panoramic view of the whole area. Driving home in the jeep with the sun setting on the salt flats and some nice tunes on the radio was a memorable experience. (see some photos above)

Onwards and Northwards

After Iguazu, and as happens every few weeks, we had to take a look at our time and money situation. We decided that we needed to start heading generally north if we wanted to make to Bolivia and Peru with adequate time to go where we wanted. Usually people go from Salta directly to Bolivia, but considering we had already been there and taken a 23 hour bus ride to get to Iguazu which borders Paraguay and not Bolivia, we figured the best way to go from there was through the less travelled Paraguay. So thats what we did. The next few days were spent just getting to Bolivia and all I remember is a haze of night buses, border crossings, and a day in Paraguay´s capital, Ascuncion, about which I have nothing really notable to say!

Deciding which route to take through Bolivia depends largely on where you are coming from and where you are going to next. As we entered the country on the south east border from Paraguay, we wanted first to go to Uyuni which is like a base camp for tourists going to the Salar de Uyuni, or the Salt Flats. From there the rough plan was to head up to La Paz and use it as a base for activites and deciding where to go next.

Bolivia is a country of constrasts. And extremes. Anyone traveling there should be prepared to be tested physically and mentally and no matter how well prepared you think you are to travel in a place like this, you will likely encounter something completey unexpected. From the dizzying heights of La Paz (Located at an altitude of 3,660 metres (12,008 ft), it is the world's highest capital city), to the lowland tropical regions of rurrenabaque and the pampas rainforests and everything in between, you can feel like you are in a completely different place from one day to the next because climate, landscape and even the local people change dramatically from one area to the next.

We crossed the border - with all the formalities including presenting your passport to be stamped in a dark room with a dodgy bolivian offical, showing your certificate of vaccinations against dengue fever, then being accompanied back to the bus by a few boys no older than 16 in military uniforms brandishing AK-47´s - and arrived in a tiny isolated town called villamontes. From here a group of around 6 of us (being the only foreigners in the whole area) splashed out spending a whole maybe 3 dollars US each to get a private minibus to bring us to Tarija, where we killed time for the day walking around the town, before taking a night bus to the slightly larger town near Tupiza. After arriving here at 4.30am we said goodbye to the japanese couple who had accompanied us thus far but no were reseigned to taking a hotel room for the day and sleeping. Not wanting to be stranded in another isolated Bolivian town we got to work on negotiating with the few taxi drivers who had flocked to us knowing we were looking for a way to Tupiza as quick as possible, and soon enough we struck a deal with an eager young man with a decent looking car who would drive us all the way there over a rocky bumby road in the mountains. Of course, 3 hours in and just after sun rise, we encountered a puntured tyre. Our driver quickly and casually got out to change the tyre in a way that I could tell it happened all the time. With the boys asleep in the back, myself and Mattias got out to walk around and enjoy the morning view of the mountains...( evenutally, the boys woke up and joined me for a photo op - see photo above)

Eventually we arrived in Tupiza, and the next morning took a 7 hour bus - one of my most uncomfortable bus journeys ever, for many reasons - to get to Uyuni. We made it, shivering from the cold and out of breath from the altitude, but excited to plan our trip to the salt flats.

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
- John Steinbeck

Overlooking "The Devils Throat"

Puerto Iguazu / Foz do Iguaçu

As we neared the end of our time in Argentina there was only really one more place that we really had to go to. One of South Americas most striking a popular natural attractions, Iguazu falls is situated right smack bang in the middle of the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.

The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 meters (269 ft) in height, though the majority are about 64 metres (210 ft). The Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo in Spanish or Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese), a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long (490 by 2300 feet) cataract, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil.

Source: Wikipedia (iguazu falls)

You can visit the falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian side, but the general consensus is that although the Brazil side is impressive, the Argentinian side is considered better as it gets you right up close to the falls and literally on the edge of the famous Garaganta del Diablo for a much more intense experience. And so we made to trips to the falls in two days, first we crossed the border to Brazil for one day to view the falls from that side, then the next days got up close and personal on the Argentinian side. It really is a powerful experience as you walk along the various paths winding in and around (sometimes even under) the various falls and the noise of huge volumes of water all around you is pleasantly deafening!

And I´ll never forget all our reactions as we approached the famous devils throat waterfall. Standing over the railings just meters from this huge waterfall is awesome and we were literally speachless for a few minutes, just staring into the huge mass of water falling in front of us... And even if you wanted to say something the noise was so loud that you had to shout - Amazing.

Puerto Iguazu in Argentina was also the place were we met a few people in our hostel - yaya, charlotte, & doctor - who would soon be "part of the family" for a few weeks to come... but thats another story altogether!

Enriques Ranch

Enrique´s cabalgatas (horse riding) ranch had been recommended to us by a friend who said it was a must do in Argentina. Based on this we decided to phone Enrique himself, who handles all the bookings personally, and book ourselves in for some gaucho living in the heart of the Argetninian countryside for a few days. Enrique lives about an hour out of the city of Salta on a farm on his own and employs a handful of people to help him run the place and host tourists. At his house you can stay as long as you like (altough it is expensive so backpackers like ourselves usually opt for a day or two), each day you will go horseriding in the surrounding countryside, up and down mountains, etc, accompanied by a guide or two. In the afternoon you return to a HUGE lunch of top quality BBQ meat, salad, potatoes and a seemingly infinate supply of red wine - which is brought out in strange unmarked green glass bottles, leading me to beleive that there is some constant flowing red wine fountain nearby - followed by a little siesta to help to food go down and try to sober up. You head out again for the evening on horseback, swaying heavily - partly because of the horse, partly the red wine - and go for another trek in another direction. By sundown, around 7 or 8, all the horses are returned to the stables and the socialising starts again in Enriques front garden. There is usually a group of 10 to 20 people at any time on the ranch, always travellers and always easy going. Around 10pm (which is early for dinner in Argentina) some more food is served. Then MORE red wine. Then some MORE food, and MORE red wine (Enrique will never allow you to sit with an empty glass in front of you)... well, you get the idea.... In one full daybetween a group of about 15 people we drank a total of 40 bottles of red wine!Ultimately the evening culminates in everyone sitting around a big table having great banter with great food and drink, watching the sun go down with mountains in the backround and nothing but the sound of crickets and animals stirring around. A really nice experience and a break from city and town life.

Obviously with my recently aquired injury (you can see in the above photo the solid cast around my shoulders which I had to wear for a week) I couldnt participate in the actual horse riding, but did my best to get involved in everything and talk to everybody, which is not that hard when you are holding a constantly full glass of red wine. During the day while the lads went horse riding I´d find a comfortable place to sit and read my book, and I couldnt have asked for a more serene setting.

As for Enrique himself, he is a real character. An extremely warm and welcoming man, he personally meets and greets everybody at the ranch, serves everyone dinner and sees to it that you have everything you need. Its also a great place to practice spanish as Enrique (through either decision or necissity) speaks no english. He seemed to take a great shine to us, making sure I was looked after during the day when the horses were out. He laughed heartily at the dinner table when he saw me squirming to eat with my broken collarbone, and would regularly come up to me playfully exclaiming ¿como estas el invalido?? ("how is the invalid?"), the nickname el invalido stuck for the duration of my stay!

All in all it was a great experience and thanks to the personal touch of enrique and his team we had an unusual but very enjoyable few days at his cabalgatas ranch.

Sudamerica continues...

Its been all go since I last wrote anything. All the way back to Buenos Aires seems like a long time ago now. All the way back to China last November seems like a lifetime ago now! So, our time in Buenos Aires was over, we said goodbye to wee Graeme who was heading back to Edinburgh and lital the israeli with the crazy hair, and we headed back north to a (relatively) small city called Rosario. Very nice place, more accessible than the big BA and full of students, great night life, cheap cafe bars, etc. Also, interesting little fact, Rosario is the home town of Che Guevara AND Lionel Messi (world famous footballer plays for barca). Now for ya. After a few nights out and an interesting ´asado´experience we headed further north by night bus to a town in just hours away from the Bolivian border called Salta. It was all going great untill THAT happened. For numerous reasons I wont go into the details, but basically...one night, I fell over and broke my collar bone!! I fell onto my back and the collar bone (or clavicula) just behind my right shoulder snapped. Yes it was painful, and I spent all of the next day in Salta´s public hospital on drips and beds taking x rays and test and all the while struggling to communicate with the doctors through mutual broken english and spanish. However, all got sorted in the end.

For the next 4 weeks (which I have almost reached now thankfully) I have had to wear an uncomfortable support thing around my shoulders which restricted my movement, and for the first week or two, I need help with EVERYTHING. I no longer take for granted the use of my fully functional arms. For a while I had to miss out on some physical activites that the lads got up to (see enriques ranch, next post), but it was probably a good idea as my budget wasnt looking to healthy at the time anyway. Thanks to Quinny and Ali for all the help and carrying my big backpack to all the hostels and bus stations.

Cordoba & Buenos Aires ("we estimate your compression")

Hosting no less than 5 universites, and having been crowned the 2006 capital of culture for the Americas, Cordoba had a lot to live up to; and it didnt disappoint. Not that we saw THAT much of the city itself. Let´s just say (sorry still havent found the right symbol for apostrphe on these spanish keyboards duh) we finally got into the pace of partying in Argentina, as the Argentinians do... Start late, and finish later.

One observation I´ve made here is that Argentinians (and apparently latin Americans in general) are not in any great hurry to do anything. Often you´ll be left waiting in a restaurant for a seemingly quick to prepare meal, although when it comes, the food will be amazing. People here eat dinner around 10pm usually. I´ve been told there is even a phrase in spanish used when orgainising a meeting; a la hora ingles ("english time", used when its a formal meeting and punctuality is expected) and a la hora latina ( meaning " on latina time"...for more social meetings, when you are almost expected to be up to half an hour late. I think Ali is on this time) Here a party will typically start around 1.30 to 2 am, and thats early. People will slowly make their way to night clubs around 3 or 4, dancing till well past sunrise, finding some breakfast and then head to bed for the day. Good times alright, but a physically exhausting and sometimes frustrating routine as it pretty much rules out doing anytihng useful for most of the next day and sleeping through all that important sunshine we are bereft of in Ireland... Having said that I did pretty well with it for a good few days in Cordoba.

We spent a lot of time in our hostel because thats were the banter was mostly, and soon we met a great group of people who we would spend the rest of our time with there. Most of the time we were on the rooftop, sunning ourselves during the day, and singin songs with the guitar at night. Or else we were in the bar downstairs playin cards or pool. We met some really nice English girls and a group of crazy Israeli´s - yes Machel Im talking about you (side note: there are an incredible amount of israeli people traveling in S.America, and BA in particular...have to say always cool people to hang out with)

But the Cordoba good times couldnt last forever, and last week we all said goodbye (teary eyed of course) and went our seperate directions. (sad face symbol... :( is that how you type it?) It seemed that everyone left the hostel that night, half to Salta and the other half to Buenos Aires.

And so here we are. The big BA, all up to date. Been here since last Friday and, even though it was hyped up to the last by everyone I have met, I do still think its a great city. A huge city, actually, but always something to do here. We strolled around posh Palermo with its old colonial architechture, ate at piano music steakhouses in San Telmo, watched random people tango on avenida de florida, and of course, the "must do"; attended a BOCA Juniours games in La Boca...So many different people, different cultures, and a great place to spend some time and many imrove your spanish. Unfortunately we dont have to time or money to hang around here too long, and very soon we will leave for Rosario and then onwards and upwards, where the countries get cheaper and hotter. We´ve spent a lot of time in the last few days looking into how exactly to go about traveling to Brazil and on up to Bolivia, Peru and Columbia (on land!), and which route to take. And we concluded after looking at our finances; it will be a challenge... But thats what were here for! "Nobody said it was easy..."

So on we go keeping our ears and eyes open for anything that can help us find the best way across this continent...Yes, we did have a plan. But plans change, isnt that what its all about? Next stop, Rosario... and then... eh... who knows? I´ll tell ya next week.

Slán a chairde

Brian

Mendoza wine tour - April 09

A few days into Mendoza we took a tour around the local wineries. This day I think was one of those highlights of the trip (for me anyway) and will not be forgotton about quickly. We took a bus about an hour out of the city to get to the wine country area. From here we rented bikes (bicycles) from Mr Hugo and spent the day cycling around the various wineries in the area. In each winery there were tastings and areas to sit under the sun and "appreciate" the wine. "yes, this one has a fruity overtone, but a definte body with a subtle hint of antelope mixed with incidious oak textures, and an aftertaste that reminds one of a lone deer crossing the plains of alaska on a winters day..." blah. blah. wine. blah. As the day wore on we tasted a great variety of grapes. Tasted some olives. Some chocolate liquor also. Moving between the wineries in a bike convoy sun on our backs...handlebars a bit shaky, legs burning and eyes bleary but laughing all the way down a windy lane between vineyards.... Great Banter.

As the sun set and we made our way back to drop off our bikes with Mr Hugo we even recevied a police escort in the form of la policia on a motorbike driving beside us. Initially (and in my slightly intoxicated and impaired judgement) I thought maybe we had done something wrong. I turned to the cop as he flanked us, at a speedy 15km/hr, and gestured innocently shrugging my shoulders, lifting one hand off the handlebar, wobbling a bit and slurring "¿hay una problema señor?". He just shook his head and slowed back behind quinny looking confused. Found out later from a local that apparently they do that for all the tourists after sundown to discourage theft or muggings. Place seemed pretty safe to us but a nice touch all the same.

As we approached our final 100 metres of the day on bikes, the inevitable happend... what we all had dreaded, but managed to avoid all day. Luckily it was nothing serious at all. In this case it was Pablo, poor lad. He was in front off me and all I remember was seeing him attempt some sort of bmx bandit manouver onto the footpath from the road. Next thing, handlebars went sideways and our Pablo was diving face first towards the tarmac, gloriously unaware of what was happening. He slid a bit on his face and arm, but luckily was going very slowly and was only a bit scratched. After checking he was ok we all had a great laugh for about 10 minutes, then finally made it to Mr Hugo to drop off the bikes. Of course it didnt end there... Mr Hugo himself being so hospitable took pity on Pablo who looked a bit worse for ware after his fall, and treated us to a kind of "lock in" at his house. The gates were locked, food was offered, MORE wine was pored...and we stayed another while.

Nedless to say I good day and night was had by all, and so far, Argentina had been treating us pretty well. A day or two of recovering later, we said our goodbyes to Pablo (whose scratches had already began to heal) and Mendoza, and made our way to Cordoba.

(photo above left to right; Ali, Graeme, Quinny, Me, Pablo)

Sudamerica

Well now, here we are... I´ve had to force myself to sit and write a blog entry as i´ve just been having too much craic to get around to it. Either that or I´m just lazy... I´d say its more of the latter to be honest, but plenty of the former also. ANYWAY where was I?... oh yes, South America, we made it. All great so far. All yappin in spanish and sunny weather and chica´s and amigo´s, wine, empanadas, tango and all that jazz... By the way I apologise in advance for the dodgy punctuation marks or misspellings that can occur. Among the challenges to be faced here are spanish keyboards (which initially took me ten minues to figure out the @ symbol), usualy slow computers, and at the moment, a loud soudtrack of bad argentinian ´reggeton´ music being forced down my ears and distracting me...But thats only some of the very few negative things about South America so far. We´ve had very little to complain about so far. (i still cant figure out how to type a proper aposthrophe on this computer.. this ´´´thing is all im getting)

So ill try one last time to get to the point... Yes, we landed Chile just under 3 weeks ago. Stayed there for a few days to get over the jetlag from NZ which wasnt easy after a 13 hour flight back traveling BACK IN TIME!! After a couple of days in santiago we took a night bus over the andes which was quite a nice journey at night time; seeing clear starry skies over the silouhette of the andes. Through the border; passport checks, immigration procedures at 4am... and on into Argentina. Our first stop here was Mendoza, a nice city near the andes full of students and famous for its wineries. We arrived at 7am with two additions to team BAD who we´d picked up in Chile; Graeme from Scotland (big G or wee graeme as we dubbed him) and Pablo the Peruvian whose knowledge of Spanish was a big help for the next few days. With no reservations made, and feeling groggy from a sleepless nightbus, things werent looking good as we stumbled out of two taxis on a street where we had been told there were "a few hostels"... 5 people lookin for a bed at 7am with no bookings would´nt usually have much of a chance. As luck would have it; the second hostel we lugged our stuff to had exactly 5 beds ready and waiting for us. Not only that but breakfast was laid out in the common area all for us, there was a pool table, big tv room, free internet, and coffee table area full of books, magazines and a shisha pipe all available for use should we desire. And better still, within minutes of arriving, Rodrigo at reception decided to invite us all to play indoor football that night with his mates. After which of course, a nice and cheap steak dinner would be had. A good introduction to Argentina I think.

BA Paper Planes 2

Franz josef glacier

NZ photos

Here is the public link to see some highlights of New Zealand in my facebook album

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=232393&id=887685205&l=fd6cf31ddb

New Zealand. "Sweet as, Bru"

Well now. Time for a brief update.

Current status...

As of right now, Quinny, Samia, Lucie and myself are here staying for a few days in "cambridge hostel" in Wellington - New Zealand's capital - situated at the bottom of the north island. Ali is staying with his cousins who live here just outside the city. Although he wont admit it, I think this is his way of calling a time out (hardly, no?) before the mayhem that will be south america. We regroup in a few days to make the journey to Auckland. Our 'family' has been changing slightly from place to place as we meet new people to travel with along the way - you meet people from all over the world, spend time together for a few days, have some fun times, and before you know it you are parting ways again to follow your own particular path...That's just the way it goes. This is the part of traveling that is often frustrating but you get used to it very quickly. We have spent much more time in hostels here, moving everyday to find a bed wherever the best deal is going. And although its slightly annoying packing your life on your back every morning and moving on, I can't say its not an enjoyable experience and something that really makes you appreciate having a home and a bed of your own for a while. And you do meet so many people once you venture away from the security of your travel mates for even a short time and make an effort...

We have had a great time in Aotearoa (The land of the long white cloud). About two weeks ago we hired a camper van and drove around the south island. It was an amazing trip and something that I will never forget; a definite highlight of the trip so far- for me anyway. New Zealand's great outdoors really is as good as people say; the breathtaking scenery is all around you once you leave the main roads outside towns and cities. We spent about 10 days with 7 people in a 6 berth camper van. The craic was mighty. I have so many stories to tell and pictures to show but for the sake of summary and so as not to bore the head of anyone I can mention some of the highlights. On one morning we all woke up at sunrise to go and watch penguins and sea lions on the beach in Omaru. We did a lot of driving through the night and often we would stop on remote roads and parks areas just to get out and look at the night sky. It was on this trip that I've seen some of the most amazing starry skies in glacier valley's with silhouettes of mountains all around, the milky way glaring through and not even an iota of noise or light to pollute the scene...

In Queenstown we took cable cars up to the peak and luged back downhill on plastic karts. We also did the 'Nevis Arc' swing, the world's highest swing which suspends you 140m over the ground in a big valley then just launches you across it in a big arc, hence the name. (see video on facebook) On the west coast we visited the amazing milford sound fjordland are, and walked up to the fox and franz josef glaciers (first time most of us had seen a glacier). There was ice climbing, kayaking, eating, drinking, singing in the most random places, sleeping in matchbox tight spaces, washing in lakes and rivers, and sneaking into the odd hostel on the sly for the treat of a hot shower. Think ‘into the wild’ meets ‘the goonies’ with a bit of father ted thrown in…

There were a few unfortunate incidents which at the time seemed disastrous and ultimately left us out of pocket a fair bit of cash each. Some of these incidents may have involved breaking down from lack of deisel in "the worst possible place to break down in New Zealand": a road tunnel deep under a mountain near milford sound, which resulted in a backup of traffic and tour buses which could not get around us for an hour. Another incident may or may not have happened may have invloved the tables inside the camper van breaking into two which may or may not have been the fault of anyone in particular. Im not saying names... Ah well, all part and parcel of a good road trip. Is'nt that what they say? No? Well, I'm saying it now.

After our south island adventure, Max and Elva went back to Australia (separately, of course - I must emphasize that or I’ll get in trouble…). And we made our way back to Christchurch for a few days of repose and sleeping in a real bed. A few days ago we drove (car re-location deal, great idea) up to Picton, and from there took the ferry to the north island and into Wellington.

Thats about it really. We are now preparing ourselves for South America. When I say preparing, that means doing nothing really productive, lots of hanging around cafe's in wellington, talking about what might and might not happen, which route to take, where we might go or can or cannot fly into and what we may or could not afford, etc, etc... Its an easy life I know.. There are a few logistical things that need to be done like sending packages home and contacting certain people re future work and study. On the plus side it beats sitting under a raincloud back in Ireland having the apocalyptic mantra of R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N drummed into our heads. Speaking of finance, our budget is getting ever tighter - This has'nt been helped by just today recieving a speeding ticket from Australia, the first of many we dread - therefore we are not doing anything else really exciting (or that costs money) here in NZ and are happy just to kill time and wait for our flight out of Auckland in 7 days.

hasta luego... Brian

Ireland vs England six nations game 28th February Melbourne

Random update

We are back in Melbourne after a nice time in Perth. But no rest for the wicked and no point in hanging around in this (relatively) expensive city... We are crossing paths with our mate Rob who came from South America and NZ and is heading towards Asia where we came from. For now, family has increased in size and team BAD is now temporarily renamed BARD, or BRAD, or whatever sounds best. Maybe RABD. no...wait, that sounds a bit diseased...

ANYWAY, we are hitting the road tomorrow. Car rented, bags packed, tunes ready to go. Boys are in the casino, me writing the blog. If they have a successful night we could end up in some nice hostels. If not, we could be sleeping in the car... Fingers crossed. We will attempt some big drives in short times hitting Adelaide very briefly, and then over to Sydney before the weekend. After that we'll see how it goes, maybe even head up the coast a little bit, avoiding shark encounters if at all possible.

recent photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=222118&id=887685205&l=1c19f

hasta luego

Brian

"Go raibh maith agaibh"

I've decided to put aside my self indulgent and vain tendencies to only write about me me me and what we are doing and instead devote a little time to mentioning and thanking SOME of the people we have spent time with and in particular have helped us out on our trip so far...

From right back in Shanghai first of all thank you Karim, Becka & Scottie(too hottie) for 'hooking us up' with some connections and things to do there...

Our time in Thailand would not have been so memorable if it weren't for the help and support of Uncle Vaughan and Sunantha in Nonthaburi who really looked after us in so many ways while in Bangkok. Thank you to all the Baha'i community there. Also, 'P' Jaya; you are a hero! Jaya has been doing great work in Om Koi and Chiang Mai and it was he who organised and co ordinated our time up in that remote Thai hill town.

Another group of people that we must mention from Thailand are the Yogachandra family. Nat, Debbie and Natasha; we spent a short but memorable time together and we hope to meet again. This family are doing some great work through projects such as the 'Hope is Life' foundation and have contributed greatly to the education and welfare of children in many less privileged countries such as India and Cambodia. Keep up the good work. (http//:www.hopeislife.org)

Lastly from our Thai connections we must say thank you to Bo (seleeecta)! We met 'teacher Bo' at the Om koi santhitham high school where we were all volunteering and spent a lot of time hanging out after classes. She brought us up to her uncles coffee farm where she was staying, and gave us a tour around. We learned all about the coffee making process and subsequently made multiple visits to the farm, sitting around the terrace overlooking the beautiful hill views, with some fresh coffee and provocative conversation... We even had a New Years eve hot pot meal up there! So thanks again Bo (& Mrs Pim Predeesnit....) We have since met up again in Melbourne in a setting slightly less serene than that of the Om koi countryside...

In Perth we have to Thank the Loh family, and especially Mariam, who looked put us up and looked after us for our first few days there. Thanks Maz for the early morning fry-ups and bringing us to good vibes and to some great beaches in Perth... Negin; sorry we took over your bedroom for a few days...

Finally... Nima; "YEAH BUDDYYYY"!! Thank you to the Dabestan family who, when we met in Cambodia, invited us to come and stay with them; Nima, Niaz and Mrs Dabestan were great hosts when we came to Armadale... Thank you for all the great Persian food, chai, shisha and relaxing times we had there, we owe you big time. Nima we wish you could take you with us on the trip. Keep studying hard! (PS - stay away from the dirt bike!!!)

Thats all for now - and to think; we are not even half way through the trip...!

End of the Asian Adventure

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
-Henry Miller


It's time to move on before we get too settled into life in Nonthaburi, which could easily happen. Thankfully the situation with our flights has resolved itself (as we always knew it would) with a little persuasive dialogue between Ali and the Thai Quantas representatives...

Im sitting in the crowded waiting area of gate C20 in Singapore's Changi Airport, waiting to board our flight to Melbourne. Now it's easy to see why it was such hassle to get on this flight as it appears to be full to capacity. Im sitting all curled up lotus style on the floor alongside all other 'young people' as seats have all been offered to older and more deserving passengers than ourselves. During a day sitting idle in taxis, buses, skytrains and queue's, I've had time to reflect on the last few months and our time in Asia...

From living the high life in Shanghai, leaping off a 233m tower in Macau, and searching for batman on Hong Kong island...to getting right back to basics in the mountain villages of Thailand and climbing ancient ruins in Cambodia; Variety is the word that best sums up our time so far. Accommodation ranged from high-rise downtown hotels and huts on the beach, to cold marble floors and stuffy bunk beds. Our transport has included private city chauffeurs, 6 hour buses with no air con, 12 hour buses with excessive air con, trains, planes, taxis, tuk tuks, moto's, metro's, pickup trucks etc etc... We sustained ourselves by eating the best and the worst in Asian delicacies, and occasionally treated ourselves to the best and very worst in more familiar western cuisine. We've spent thai baht, euro, dollar (US singapore and hong kong), chinese rmb, cabmodian rial and more, and we've confused ourselves with exchange rates, fee's, credits/debts to each-other and our bank accounts... all the while enjoying the relatively cheap cost of living here. There have been 'mossies' and lizards, snakes and monkeys, touts and junkies. We've spent time teaching children whatever we could from English to Music and Art, and we ourselves have learned so much more than ever anticipated. To say its been a memorable journey so far is an accurate yet understated description.

Angkor Wat

Planes, Trains, confusion and Cambodia

We've been more then fortunate in so many ways on this trip so far; the people we've met, connections made, sights seen, experiences had... However the nature of our trip being what it is , we've run into a few 'logistical' snags along the way which I should mention.

About two weeks after arriving in Thailand, we were informed by a friend of a friend that the laws had just changed regarding visas for foreign visitors (since we arrived!!...great timing). Basically all foreigners will now only receive a stamp for 15 days on their passport instead of at least 30, as it had previously been. This is for border crossings only, and doesnt change anything for those flying into the country. For us this means a visa trip to a neighboring country every 15 days in order to stay in Thailand as long as we want. Two weeks ago we spent a day on a bus to get to Mae Sae, the Myanmar border, and tomorrow we will take a similar trip to Cambodia. Luckily for us, the trip to Cambodia happens to coincide with a Baha'i conference happening there in a town called Batambang at the weekend which Ali plans to go to, so Quinny and I might tag along so we all get to see some of rural Cambodia...

We planned for a while now to change our schedualed flight to Australia on Feb 3rd, to a later date, as we decided that we wanted to prolong our time in SE Asia. In our experience, doing this (date change) has always been no problem, but this time around, Quantas have made things difficult for us...(yes, its all their fault). Long story short; they told us all the seats in our "class" are full on the dates we want, and instead of moving us to another seat in another class - of which there are many - for the same price, we are being put on a waiting list and have to wait for an seat to open up.

In summary; We now have no confirmed flight out of Singapore. By going to Cambodia, we miss our flight and must wait to be contacted when seats open up...which they should have by around the 13th/14th, giving us time to make our way down through Malaysia. Bit of a risk, but we'll get there eventually. And staying in SE Asia longer, we spend a lot less then going early to Oz.

On a lighter note, we did just come back from eating a ridiculously great meal (steak, chips, free salad bar, fruit, dessert) in Sizzler for about 3 euro. Yesterday we spent our day playing pool, bowling, at the cinema, and finished it off with an hour long thai massage ... all for 'a few euro like'...I'm sitting in flip flops and shorts sipping an iced coffee. And its January. Forgive me if I'm not exactly filled with pessimism at the moment...!!

Chiang Mai on a bike

For anyone spending time in Thailand, I'd highly recommend a trip up to Chiang Mai at some stage. It's sort if like the capital of the north, and its much smaller than Bangkok. The city has many things to do, is rich in culture and history (riddled with temples and old walls) and is much more accessible to the average traveler than "krung thep"...

We spent most of our time buzzin around the city on bikes which was one of the most simply enjoyable things I've done in a while. "Nong Fa" at the baha'i centre was kind enough to ride around with us for the first few days then once we got to know the city we formed our own biker gang and tried to assert our dominance over rival gangs. That did'nt really take off so we just spent our time spinnin in and around the city at night getting lost.

It's been tricky for some reason trying to put photos on the blog recently, but I did manage to get one or two up. above is one of Ali in chiang mai that I took from the back of a bike with nong Fah driving... I have been able upload some photos of the last while on facebook (including a few on the bikes). Here are the public links:

Bangkok, Chiang Mai, & other pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205957&l=ea5b4&id=887685205

Om Koi pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204839&l=f6e83&id=887685205

"Mai khao jai"

I'll start by saying with no exaggeration that our time in Om Koi was an amazing experience. I know I speak for the 3 of us in saying that the time we spent there has really affected us and others in a positive way. There were challenges, there were tough times and coming from our part of the world there were things to adjust to that we did find difficult. But in a short time, anybody who goes there with an open mind and good intentions will inevitably benefit from the experience.

The most impressive and striking thing to me, right from the start, was the group of around 40 kids that we stayed with at the Baha'i center. These kids (aged roughly between 12 and 17) were completely self-sufficiant, disciplined, hard working, happy and well mannered children. We kept asking "who looks after them?', or "who does this for them?", etc. Jaya contributes greatly to the center, overlooking everything, bringing supplies from Chiang Mai and co-ordinating activites. But when he returns home to Bangkok for weeks at a time, things continue to run smoothly without him. The kids will everyday; rise at 5.30AM, exercise, cook, clean, wash clothes, pray, go to school, come back, cook & clean more, pray, study & do homework, play some games, sing songs, have some discussions and go then to bed early...all by themselves, without a need for any adult supervision or strict guidance. There seemed to be an elaborate and unspoken system whereby the older children assumed the role of supervisor with more responsibility, making sure things went smoothly, and all the younger kids carried out whatever duties they had to without question. There were rosters and time tables for who did what & when, particularly regarding cooking and cleaning. And these children were among the happiest, most joyful, attentive and intelligent young people we've ever met; always making time to balance work and play, include you in whatever they can or just sit around and have fun with you, talking about anything and always wanting to learn something about your culture and teach you about theirs.

It was a remarkable routine to watch, and I couldn't stop thinking just watching them everyday how much more disciplined they were to me and how we could all learn a thing or two from this kind of lifestyle back in our part of the world.

We spent the first few days getting to know the kids and the area around us. We sang songs and played games in the evenings, and during the day we went to the local schools (Ali and David to the high school, and me to the primary school) and started to work out a routine of what we'd be doing over the next few weeks. I was mostly teaching English and playing music, Ali was teaching English also and doing some dance workshops, and Quinny made some good contributions by painting in the school and decorating a wall in the Baha'i center with a well designed nine point star.

At weekends we made excursions to the local (and extremely remote) tribal villages, which took hours to reach, even in Jaya's 4x4, because of some disastrous roads. But really enjoyed all of these trips as it was so adventurous and we were welcomed so warmly in each village we visited.
The diet of Thai food (chicken/rice/spice) twice a day everyday - although delicious and healthy - began to take its toll on some of us...that's all that needs to be said on the matter. Also, for a while we had no hot water. I remember the day when I went to use the shower and Quinny was in the bathroom; I knocked and said "Are you in the shower?". Audibly shivering and grunting under the cold shower, he replied in the rattiest tone "Y-Yeah man...I'm gettin the next bus home..."

But instead of talking about what we missed, I want to mention what we gained. We have all so many memories and stories to tell of our time in Om Koi: I would'nt even attempt to summarize these into a blog as it would be too difficult and undoubtedly boring to read. But I can say that we learned a lot about the Thai people, the tribal cultures, and (here's the cheese) about ourselves.

Thank you to Uncle Jaya, and all the Om Koi baha'i community that looked after us and helped give us an unforgettable experience. Hope to see you all again...Khorp Khoon ma khrap...

Back from the wild...well, kind of...

We are now back in Bangkok, staying in Nonthaburi with uncle Vaughan. Up north in Om Koi and Chiang Mai we had little or no computer/internet access for a few weeks(which I'm not complaining about!!), so I am only now getting around to the updating the blog, sorting photos, etc. After all the moving around from Om koi to Chiang Mai, from there to Bangkok, down to Ko Samet and back, its time to settle again; Time to 'regroup', reflect, organise, etc... We will stay for about 2 more weeks here. There's talk of a visa trip to Cambodia which might coincide with a Baha'i conference there, but we'll cross that bridge (or border) when we come to it. After that, we will move south through Malaysia, then on to Singapore to catch our flight in February which will take us to that big aul' country where they used to send all the Irish criminals and fenian's...now we are going by our own accord; how the tables have turned...