15th May 2013 I’m surprised that today is our only overdone day. We’ve tried to cover a lot this week, probably too much (as usual), yet it has worked really well and we’ve been able to enjoy exploring every destination we’ve visited. The clearest sign, to me, that we’ve overdone it on past travels is » » »
Posts Tagged ‘travelling’
3 August 2011
The final route
Gosh, we didn’t change very much. Apart from fiddling around with our arrival in New Zealand so that we were visiting in autumn rather than winter (well worth it) we didn’t change a single leg of our Round-the-World ticket. We did add two additional countries to our original list, though. Having arrived in Chile and » » »
Tags: itinerary, travelling
3 August 2011
Travelling light
I think we can definitely recommend travelling light. Passing through airports or wandering around tourist towns with a backpack on my shoulders and a satchel at my side I felt much freer than either the ones lugging enormous suitcases on wheels or those hefting super-sized backpacks on their back and another almost as big on » » »
Tags: equipment, travelling
25 July 2011
Homeward bound
24th July 2011 Here we are at Quito airport, waiting for the plane to take us home. We’ve got two heads full of memories and two backpacks full of all the stuff that we’ve needed for a whole year. A few new bits added, a few discarded on the way, but mostly what we set » » »
Tags: blog, travelling
24 July 2011
Final day
24th July 2011 It’s the final whole day of our year-long trip around the world. We must see one last mammal! Or have one last amazing experience! One final superb celebratory meal! But no. It’s raining, it’s raining. So our final day will be flopping around Papallacta and splopping like lazy sealions into the hot » » »
Tags: travelling, weather
24 July 2011
Variable conditions
23rd July 2011 Today was a strange mixture. Up hideously early in the morning birdwatching; a long, weary and immensely frustrating drive all over the middle of Ecuador; and this evening finds us relaxing in our own hot spring pool in the rain and mist. The birdwatching happened by accident, we were asking Julia some » » »
20 July 2011
Deluxe in Quito
18th July 2011 Wow. Stuffed again. Our last three course meal was back in Santiago, our first night in South America. Today for lunch we went to Theatrum, a fine restaurant attached to the main theatre in old colonial Quito. I had some lovely grilled octopus tentacles and then some nicely grilled grouper to follow. » » »
20 July 2011
Every good thing…
17th July 2011 …must come to an end. And our Galapagos cruise was definitely a good thing, perhaps the highlight of our time in South America. Perhaps not perhaps, perhaps definitely. Yes, definitely definitely the highlight. The last morning was bound to be anticlimactic, but the Interpretation Centre on San Cristobal really made sure of » » »
Tags: tourism, travelling
8 July 2011
The final leg
7th July 2011 I can’t believe that of the five hotels in Quito we emailed, only one has replied. They’ve had almost 48 hours and it isn’t even a weekend. I do hope this isn’t a taste of things to come on the last leg of our trip. Related Images:
Tags: travelling
8 July 2011
Habla español?
5th July 2011 The oddest thing happened today. A waitress in a cafe took a look at us, decided we were probably English speakers, and asked “what would you like to drink?” Everywhere else in the world I’ve been on holiday this has been fairly normal: from Paris to Pokhara it is apparently easy for » » »
Tags: language, travelling
5 July 2011
Across a dry land
3rd July 2011 Nice to know that travel plans can still go… mostly… to plan. Yesterday afternoon we picked up a bus in San Pedro which took us (via loathly Calama) to Antofagasta down on the coast. It arrived at 10:30pm so we had booked a hotel in advance over the phone. The guidebook map » » »
3 July 2011
San Pedro here we are
30th June 2011 The next day dawned and suddenly Calama was a busy town of shops and banks and cafes, everyone getting on with business as though yesterday’s zombietown had never been. We managed to get on a bus which left at midday and in less than two hours we were in San Pedro de » » »
Tags: desert, travelling
29 June 2011
Calama-ty
29th June 2011 Would somebody like to leave some comments here in defense of South America? I explain… Our journey to San Pedro de Atacama was in two parts; an overnight bus to the nowhere town of Calama, then a one hour bus to San Pedro. Calama is actually quite unique – I’ve never seen » » »
22 June 2011
Toured out
20th June 2011 It’s actually the 21st as I’m writing, because we curled up for a nap at 7pm last night and didn’t get up again until 7am this morning. Discounting five minutes at 11pm to actually undress. We’ve been to the Colca Canyon and now we’re back in Arequipa and have had our first » » »
11 June 2011
The new Peru
9th June 2011 And so via the rather un-travellery approach of hopping a short plane flight, we have arrived in Cusco. Tourist capital of the Andes by anyone’s account. So we’ve missed Lake Titicaca, which is a shame, although it was visible out of the window of our 737. Cusco is very different from La » » »
29 May 2011
Sleeping beauties
27th May 2011 We eventually got to sleep at 6am, so inevitably we were a little late getting up the next day. In fact we finally got up at 6pm. Not really applying ourselves properly to conquering this jetlag. Still, Chileans like to go out late for their evening meal and this suited us ideally. » » »
Tags: food, travelling
28 May 2011
Two duff days for the price of one
26th May 2011 – 26th May 2011 Our flight from Auckland to Santiago crossed the dateline, so we get to celebrate our 10 month mark twice. Unfortunately neither of our 26th Mays were very celebratory days. The first 26th May was just kicking around our Auckland motel until the airport minibus whisked us off to » » »
28 May 2011
Preparation: South America
25th May 2011 A lot of our few days in Auckland have been spent preparing for our two months in South America. I don’t know whether this is common to many round-the-world travellers, but our particular interest in seeing wildlife means that we need to do a good chunk of research and booking of some » » »
2 May 2011
Congrats
1st May 2011 Apparently there was a wedding over the weekend. Honestly, it completely passed us by. The first we heard was from some locals today who detected my accent and asked whether we’d watched it on TV. Watched what? Oh, right. Related Images:
Tags: travelling
24 April 2011
Overdid it
20th April 2011 This was my doing. We spent far too long night-driving in search of animals this evening and have overdone it. Unhappily, Old Wesleydale the Georgian house was only available for one night so we moved along to a nice old B&B in the same village of Mole Creek. This was our base » » »
Tags: travelling, wildlife
21 April 2011
Always on the go
18th April 2011 Before we set out on our travels, I always had an urge (usually stifled) to correct people who called our year away a holiday. We’re not tourists, we’re travellers. It’s not a holiday, it’s a year of travel. But do you know what? This is effectively a year-long holiday. There’s two ways » » »
Tags: travelling
7 April 2011
Do you miss the exotic?
6th April 2011 So here’s the thing. We really enjoyed our month in New Zealand, it’s a fantastic place to visit unless you are a relentlessly urban person or only enjoy beaches. But I was reflecting on our blog entries for the month and trying to work out what was missing; somehow they didn’t feel » » »
Tags: blog, travelling
1 April 2011
Is it just the sun?
30th March 2011 Today was a surprisingly satisfying day, despite not really doing much. Of course, I write this after a couple of glasses of very good Syrah from one of the wineries we visited a few days ago, but still… All we’ve actually accomplished today is getting from Havelock to Motueka, doing a washload » » »
Tags: accommodation, travelling
10 March 2011
Bit tired really
8th March 2011 My haircuts around the world continue to vary. The young stylist in Fremantle has cut it dramatically short and managed to stab my ear into the bargain. It’s shorter than Hong Kong even, though bears no resemblance to Nigel Kennedy. And the cut was not deep. Silver linings, eh? Western Australia has » » »
4 March 2011
Back in the groove
1st March 2011 This evening I cooked up spaghetti with a tomato sauce; onion, garlic, mushrooms, white wine and plenty of pepper. It could have used capers and fresh herbs, but that’s the kind of stuff not worth buying if you’re on the road. We spent the day hiking a section of the Bibbulman Track, » » »
7 February 2011
Ubud feels familiar
4th February 2011 We’re travelling with friends again. Yesterday morning we got up hideously early to go jogging with Maureen’s cousin in a park in Denpasar. Don’t ask me why! Although it turned out that we were only going to be walking around the park, and indeed most of the other locals in their shorts » » »
7 February 2011
Useful things
2nd February 2011 Today’s post is an equipment update. We promised to do these, as every other travel blog we’ve read tells readers what they decided to pack, but not how those items turned out in practise. There’s torrential rain outside, and today was largely spent with last-minute tasks like printing out photos for grandma » » »
Tags: travelling
24 January 2011
Journal entry 20/01/2011
20th January 2011 We keep a daily journal of notes, both to cover all the details we might forget and which don’t make it into blogs, and also to remind me of details if it’s a couple of days before I actually put a blog entry together. This is pretty much today’s journal entry (with » » »
17 January 2011
Thailand nutshell
It’s clear why Thailand has such a gravitational pull for travellers of all kinds. The country is full of interest, it’s more modern and accommodating than other Asian nations, and the crucial travelling commodities of food, lodging and transport are all cheap and good quality; you can dwell comfortably in Thailand for £20 per day. » » »
12 January 2011
Unguided
11th January 2011 Georgetown is the main city of Penang and was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site; we seem to bump into a couple of these in every country we visit. I can see why it would be, as the mixture of cultures here is fascinating and goes back a long way, influencing » » »
11 January 2011
Zero additional westerners
10th January 2011 Everyone goes to Langkawi. From Ko Yao Noi to Krabi to Satun, the assumption of every tuk-tuk driver, boat operator and helpful person was that we wanted to get to Langkawi. But we had decided to go straight to Penang and so defied expectation. Our last meal in Thailand yesterday evening was » » »
Tags: transport, travelling
10 January 2011
Run for the border
9th January 2011 Written by Maureen Our visas run out tomorrow so we had no choice but to leave our idyllic beach resort and run for the border. After one last walk on the beach, we jumped on a tuk-tuk which sped us to the pier, where we hopped on a longtail boat, which crossed » » »
Tags: transport, travelling
31 December 2010
Cambodia nutshell
I like Cambodia, even though things don’t work quite how they’re meant to, the traffic is chaos and the country is clearly very poor. My warm feelings may in part be due to the nice accommodation we stayed in, but getting an enormous plush villa by a pool for the price of a cosy shoebox » » »
31 December 2010
Leaving Cambodia
27th December 2010 Oops. It looks like something I ate last night didn’t agree with me. Let’s just say four trips to the loo before dawn and I won’t paint you a picture. We’ll just have to have a relaxing day without much activity so I can get over it, within easy reach of a » » »
23 December 2010
Boat trip
22nd December 2010 We left Battambang today after a very relaxing stay at the Sanctuary Villa, and travelled to Siem Reap where we are staying at Dan’s other hotel. Dan (pronounced “dane”) is a seriously nice guy and a real entrepreneur; he’s a computer programmer who seems to have fallen into the hotel business, and » » »
19 December 2010
Lucky charm
18th December 2010 We left Bangkok on the 5:55AM train and headed for the Cambodian border. Research on the internet and in guidebooks suggested we were in for an irksome day – tales of a thousand touts and a hundred scams at what was described as a “nightmare” border crossing. We got off the train. » » »
4 December 2010
Evoking Ayutthaya
Travel writing includes a lot of deception by ommission, probably not often intentional. I happen to have read a short piece by someone about visiting Ayutthaya – the ruins of the old capital of Thailand – and this also happens to be what we did today. We also did pretty much what he did, which » » »
3 November 2010
Three months in
Written by Maureen Okay, so it doesn’t feel like a holiday anymore. The last few weeks have left me frazzled and desperately comfort-sick. What with dodging motorbikes in Kathmandu, suffering altitude-sickness in Tibet, the physically demanding trek and always worrying if we’re all going to make it, the ultra-basic and often smelly facilities on the » » »
19 October 2010
Overland to Tibet?
Paragraphs in blockquote written by Maureen We travelled overland from Kathmandu to Lhasa, and flew back. So instead of a country summary, here’s a summary of that particular (and popular) trip. This may help if you are thinking of doing the same. A Nepali travel agency arranged the trip for us, which lasted 7 nights, » » »
14 October 2010
Seven days in Tibet
Written by Maureen Day One An early start from Kathmandu in order to reach the Chinese border before it is closed. After an hour our driver finds he’s left some important documents, so we go back to Kathmandu to find his brother with the docs on the roadside. The road to the border is the » » »
11 October 2010
Daddy Mountains
I’m really worried. I’ve got a splitting headache, I’m dizzy, my heartbeat is racing and I can’t sleep at all. These are most of the symptoms for altitude sickness (lucky me, at least I’m not nauseous). I’m not worried about my health, because these are the mild symptoms and the “cure” if they get worse » » »
30 September 2010
Madagascar nutshell
We have only been in Madagascar for two weeks, and most of that in national parks, so we can hardly give a complete summary. And since our transport and accommodation was arranged for us, we can’t comment on price. Here’s what we can say… Accommodation There are decent hotels in all the main cities and » » »
Tags: travelling
30 September 2010
Thoughtful in Tana
Madagascar is over. Two weeks is definitely not enough time to explore this nation, not even to explore the best wildlife sites. I’ve seen just enough of the people and places of the island in passing that I’d like to come back for more than just lemurs, though. There is so much here that is » » »
Tags: reflecting, travelling
27 September 2010
Malagasy scenes
We spent all our time in national parks, so most of these pictures were taken on the looong drives in between. PS – we’re flying out tomorrow. No-one needed their pipe carrying, but everyone was friendly and the Malagasy locals we met seemed delighted (and sadly, surprised) that we took the trouble to learn a » » »
27 September 2010
Intruding
Hilary Bradt in her guidebook talks of asking their guide to stop at a local Malagasy school so they could go in and visit the kids. Predictably everyone had a wonderful experience, some of the kids having never interacted with white folks before. It’s something I would never do, and have been pondering a lot. » » »
12 September 2010
Unhelpful
Useless people make angrybird angry! Along with all the great memories of South Africa will be the abiding memory of the uselessness of helpful people. By this I mean people we met whose job is meant to be serving and helping the public; receptionists, tourist info people, etc. A couple of examples: We checked into » » »
29 August 2010
One month in
Written by Maureen on 26 August 2010 It has been exactly one month now since we left our cosy home in England to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. And it still feels like a holiday! I’m going to be honest (and risk the ire of serious travellers everywhere) and admit that I » » »