part time gypsys

Vacation 2010

2010-10-01T19:48:00.000+02:00

I have finally gotten around to going through, editing and uploading most of our pictures form this summers vacation. The Zambian and Botswana pictures are all uploaded and now I am working on the rest of the Tanzanian and Malawian pictures. If I could just find that little card where are the rest of the pictures are I would be good to go. Too many things to keep track of. I promise to finish the pictures shortly and write a summary of the last few weeks in Malawi. It´s funny now that I have internet I do not use it as often as I would have liked to while we were traveling. Bare with me people............

Malawi (español)

2010-09-24T20:47:00.000+02:00

Por fin estamos en Malawi y con internet! La ultima vez que
escribimos estabamos yendo hacia la frontera de Tanzania con Malawi.
Hicimos una parada en un pueblo de Tanzania, Iringa, para celebrar mi
cumpleanos y hacer un ultimo safari. Cruzamos medio pais en autobus,
un viaje que nos dijeron que iba a tardar 5 hrs y al final tardamos 9.
Pasamos a toda velocidad por el parque de Mukuni y pudimos ver
Girafas, Elefantes, Zebras, Baboons y otros animales desde la sucia
ventana del autobus. Me preocupaba la velocidad a la que ibamos
pasando por el parque y luego lei que en esa caretera han atropellado
muchos animales, incluyendo elefantes. Por fin cuando llegamos a
Iringa fuimos a una oficina donde organizan safari's y miramos a ver
si habia otra gente interesada en compartir los gastos del coche,
conductor y guia. Nos encontramos con otra pareja, Jerome y Rebeca,
de Francia y Espana. Contratamos un safari de una noche y dos dias y
salimos hacia el parque de Ruaha por un camino de tierra y con
muchisimos baches. Nuestro campamento estaba muy cerca de la entrada
del parque y antes de entrar pudimos ver elefantes y girafas. Es algo
increible ver animales tan grandes desde la ventana del coche. El
parque de Ruaha es completamente distinto al de Chobe en Botswana. La
vegetacion es como yo imaginaba cuando pense en Africa, Acacias,
Baobab's, arbustos secos, una hierba larga y la tierra roja. La
densidad de animales no es la de Chobe pero se aprecia los animales en
un habitat mas natural. Vimos muchos animales y al final del dia
vimos nuestros primeros leones! Fue increible. Habia un grupo de 8 o
9 machos muy cerca del camino y nos quedamos mucho tiempo sacandoles
fotos, aunque ellos pasaban de nosotros totalmente. Por la noche en
el camping nos sentamos alrededor del fuego hablando con nuestro guia
y conductor de los Masai's y la historia y cultura de Tanzania.
Fueron unos dias increibles y me alegro de haber hecho otro safari.
Despues del Safari cogimos un autobus hasta Mbeya donde pasamos la
noche antes de seguir hacia la frontera de Malawi. La salida de
Tanzania y entrada a Malawi fue muy facil y nada mas cruzar la
frontera cogimos un taxi a la primera ciudad de Malawi. La ciudades
aqui son mucho mas basicas y apenas tienen bancos, ni restaurantes, ni
alojamiento etc. Al final llegamos a nuestro destino en el norte de
Malawi a la orilla del lago Malawi. Nos acampamos alli dos dias y
dimos unas vueltas por el pueblo que es solo unas casas y puestos de
comida en la calle principal. Dejamos nuestras mochilas en el camping
y cogimos un camino de tierra y fuimos andando hacia arriba hacia el
pueblo de Livingstonia, que era una antigua mision de David
Livingstone. Alli nos quedamos en un sitio precioso al borde de un
barranco. El dueno es belga y tiene el camping, unas cabanas y una
huerta donde saca todos los alimientos para las comidas, en plan
autosostenible. Ibamos a quedarnos una noche y al final pasamos tres
donde celebramos el cumpleanos de Antonio. Hicimos una pequena fiesta
con el dueno, un suizo-argentino, el cocinero Italiano y nuestros
amigos Jerome y Rebeca. Ayer bajamos andando y recogimos nuestras
mochilas para seguir nuestro camino hacia el sur. Hoy estamos en un
pueblo en las montanas, Muzuzu, y estamos aprovechando de las
comodides que ofrecen las ciudades Africanas, como bancos y internet y
nada mas. Manana iremos hacia el lago otra vez a Nkhata bay y nos
quedaremos por lo menos una semana explorando la zona y las islas en
frente que estan en el lado de Mozambique.
En general nos gusta mucho Malawi y la gente son muy simpaticos pero
nos soprende que es mas caro que Tanzania aunque es bastante menos
desarollado. Nos quedan menos de 20 dias antes de coger nuestro avion
en Lilongwe.

Zanzibar to Malawi

2010-09-24T20:46:00.000+02:00

We had a great time in Zanzibar and even met the son of the president of Zanzibar. I love mixing with the rich and famous! Although I don't know how posh it is to be drinking warm beers on a beach in Zanzibar but at least he was an extremely interesting guy and we had a great day with him. We spent our last day in Stone town buying souvenirs which now make our backpacks even heavier and we still have one month to go. We took a fast boat back to Dar, as apposed to a slow ferry, and had a super fun ride. I felt like I was ten again and back on the Demon at Great America. The ocean was pretty choppy and the wind was blowing hard and with our speed it all combined together to make a stomach dropping ride. Every once in awhile the boat would lift up and then plunge back down into the water. Every time I did that I wanted to throw my hands up in the air! We also had dolphins swim along side of the boat and at one point in front of us. Silly things didn't they know that we were flying and they could have been run over. Back in Dar we were deciding whether to go straight to Mbeya (near the border of Malawi) by train or stopping along the way by bus and maybe joining in on a Safari. We eventually deciding, because of the cost $$$, to go by train. I had been trying to call all week,with no luck, to book the tickets and so finally the day before we went to the train station. We took the local transport, Dalla Dalla, which is a small mini bus. For 20 cents you jam in there with about 50 other people and hope you don't get stepped on or pick pocketed. I have seen many of these buses from the outside with people hanging out the door and others faces smashed up against the window, quite a sight. By the time we got to the train station the booking office was closed so we just decided to risk it and show up the next day for the train. The next morning before we took the taxi and left our guesthouse I tried calling one more time and this time got thru and was told that the train was all sold out! Again our train trip was foiled and we now had no other option than going the next day by bus. That following morning we got on a supposedly 5hr bus trip to Iringa in southern Tanzania but as usual it wasn't 5 hrs but instead 9hrs! Aside from stopping in every single town on the way to pick up and drop off customers we also had a lot of road construction and many delays due to that. Luckily we had a TV on board and got to watch tons of music videos by local artists and even some Swahili comedy shows. The music videos got old pretty quick as you can't really tell one song from the next and they usually last like 20 mins each. The comedy show was even worse since we don't understand Swahilli and the humor was not evident. But the bus driver seemed to enjoy the show and has he drove he would crane his neck back and glance up at the TV! Then at one of the stops, due to construction, where we sat on the road for about 15mins Antonio nudged me and pointed to the driver. I was quite surprised to find him taking a little snooze! Poor guy must have been really tired! The rest of the trip I was kind of freaked wondering if the 15min cat nap did him any good or maybe wasn't enough for the next 3 hours that he still had to drive. Finally at about 7pm we arrived in Iringa and were glad to get to our guest house which is quite nice compared to what we have been living in for the last few weeks. We actually have one big bed, yes at night Antonio and I both roll to the middle but so what, we have hot water and breakfast included. We finally have signed on to a Safari with two others and tomorrow leave for a two day one night Safari! I am hoping to see lots of lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!
After that it is off to Malawi.

Nos Vamos

2010-09-24T20:30:00.000+02:00

Creo que no le gustamos al tren. Nuestro segundo intento de coger el
tren y .......FALLIDO! Esta vez ni pudimos comprar billetes porque
estaban todos vendidos. La primera vez fue el accidente y tuvimos que
cambiar a un bus...ay ay ay! Bueno tuvimos que buscar otra solucion y
tampoco es mala. Manana cogemos un bus y hacemos un viaje de 6 horas
a Iringa y alli decidiremos si siguimos el dia siguiente a Malawi o
nos quedamos unos dias en la zona. Es una zona buena para hacer
safari's y caminatas pero los precios de los safari's son bastante
caros y ya que hicimos uno, y nos gusto mucho, no se si gastaremos el
dinero para hacer otro.
Hace dos dias que vinimos de Zanzibar y tuvimos una vuelta bastante
divertida. Cogimos un barco rapido, en vez del Ferry lento, y hacia
bastante viento y le mar estaba un poco revuelto. Nosotros nos
sentamos en la proa en unos bancos al aire libre. A veces soplaba muy
fuerte el viento y se levantaba el barco y parecia una montana rusa.
Creo que mas que algunas veces tenia el estomago en la boca. Luego
vimos unos delfines a lado del barco y un poco mas tarde nadaron por
delate, espero que no pillamos ninguno. Ibamos bastante rapidos.

Aqui estamos en Dar es Salaam y ya se lo que significa estar como
sardinas en una lata. Ayer cogimos el mini bus local "Dalla Dalla" y
empezaba subir gente y mas gente y justo cuando pense que ya no podia
subir mas, subio como otras diez personas. Desde fuera tenia que
parecer bastante graciosa con gente con sus caras aplastadas en las
ventanas y algunos cueropos que salian por la puerta. Todo una
experiencia.
No se si tendremos mas noticias hasta Malawi y nos queda unos dias de
viaje, cambia de moneda, hora, idioma, culturas, paises etc. Que
ilusion.

Tanzania (english)

2010-07-17T12:49:00.000+02:00

I am writing from one of the many beaches in Zanzibar. We have been here for the last week and are really enjoying the Tanzanian hospitality and the beautiful beaches. The first few days we spent in Zanzibar town and stayed in the area of Stone town, which is the heart and soul of Zanzibar. The town faces out to the ocean and is surrounded on the remaining sides by the main road. The center is a maze of small, windy cobblestone streets littered with small souvenir shops, tiny restaurants, cafes, guest houses and hotels. As you walk down the streets you are constantly being greeted "Mambo" "Jambo" " Karibu". These are the Swahili ways of saying " hello" and "welcome". Yes, most are trying to sell you something but they are in no way aggressive or too persistent and some just want a little conversation. The buildings are a mixture of colonial, Arabic and Swahili style construction resulting in a beautiful mixture of architecture. It is very common to see Masai's walking down the streets in their typical dress with red or blue cloths wrapped around them and tied to their waists with a belt. They also wear lots of beaded jewelry on their wrists, ankles and necks and some even have a knife tied into their belts and carry a walking stick. But it is even more curious and fun to see them here on the beach with their sunglasses on selling their jewelry. The market in Stone town is very lively and goes on all day. They have tons of fruits, vegetables, some really big fish and spices (It is called the spice island). In the evening you can walk outside the marked or down the side streets and eat grilled octopus, calamari, bread fruit, and cassava's. All throughout the day you can buy peeled oranges which you buy to suck the juice out and then throw away the pulp, mangoes with chili and sugar sprinkled on top or just sit by one of the locals selling spiced coffee on the street and people watch. After leaving Stone town we took a "Dalla Dalla" (local transport) to Kendwa, one of the most beautiful beaches (that's what we are told) here in Zanzibar. They are white sand beaches, with turquoise water and the temperature is perfect to swim or just laze around. There is always someone to offer you a tour somewhere or a snorkeling trip but if you decide not to go they say "Akuna matata", "no problem". Yesterday we went out on a typical Dhow boat, which is made of wood and has a large sail, and were taken to a nearby private island to snorkel. Later they took us to a different beach where they had fresh grilled tuna and rice waiting for us for lunch. On the way back we had a school of Dolphin swim up along the boat and follow us for a bit. Today we have walked to a nearby village while the tide is low to use the internet and tour around. We are planning on staying for about 4 or 5 days more before making our way back to Malawi.

Tanzania (espanol)

2010-07-10T12:47:00.000+02:00

La ultima vez que os escribimos estabamos todavia en Zambia, en el norte. Alli pasamos los ultimos dias con mi madre visitando unas pinturas rupestres. Por mala suerte cogimos una guia que no tenia muchas ganas de trabajar y de las mas de mil pinturas nos enseno 4. Al final compramos unos libros sobre la zona y asi aprendimos un poquito mas. Otro dia hicimos una ruta en bici hasta unas cataratas a 35km de Kasama y acampamos alli. La zona era muy chula y pudimos acercarnos a las cataratas mucho y dormir al ladito. Finalmente nos despedimos de mi madre en Kasama y cogimos el tren, la Tazara, que une Zambia con Tanzania y va hasta Dar es Salaam. Todos nos habian dicho que el viaje era super chulo como pasaba por un parque nacional y ves un monton de animales. El viaje supestamente tarda mas o menos 36-46 horas dependiendo de los retrasos. Nosotros salimos a las 4am el miercoles, con una hora de retraso solo, y supuestamente ibamos a llegar sobre las 2pm el viernes. Teniamos un camarote para nosotros solos y estabamos muy ilusionados con nuestro viaje. Cuando cruzamos la frontera con Tanzania uno que trabajaba en el Tren venia a informarnos que a unos 2 horas habia un accidente en la via y lo mas probable es cuando llegasemos a la proxima parada nos cambiaria a un autobus que nos llevaria a Dar es Salaam. Estaba muy decepcionada y no tenia muchas ganas de cambiar el viaje en tren por uno en autobus de 12hrs. Al final estuvimos parados en esa ciudad todo el dia , hasta las 8pm, y finalmente nos dijeron que el dia siguiente iba a recogernos un autobus a las 5am para llevarnos a Dar. Esa noche, vimos el partido de Espana y Alemania en un vagon del tren sin volumen y el tren parado. El dia siguiente esperamos desde las 5am hasta las 7am cuando por fin llego el autobus. El viaje aparte de ser muy largo fue bastante aburrido hasta que quedaban 3 horas para llegar a Dar y empezamos a ver Masai's por las calles con sus ropas, una especie de pareo, rojas y azules que los atan a sus cinturas con un cinturon, llevando muchas pulseras de cuentas, sus zapatos hechos de las llantas de los coches y siempre con un baston en la mano. Son gente muy alta y delgada y la mayoria llevan la cabeza rapada. Tambien pasamos por un parque nacional y pudimos ver zebras, girafas, impalas y elefantes. Por fin a las 8pm de la noche llegamos a Dar es Salaam y pudimos probar nuestras primeras cervezas de Tanzania. Las cervezas tienen nombres como; Safari, Serengeti, Tusker etc y estan buenisimas! El dia siguiente dimos una vuelta por Dar, una ciudad con mucha vida y un puerto bastante importante. Probamos nuestras primeras comidas de la calle como casava asada, naranjas a que las quitan una capa muy fina de la piel, la que luego usan para te's, y las parten en medio y chupas el zumo. Tambien hemos comido pinchos de carne, pulpo asado, chapati's etc. Ese dia decidimos irnos el dia siguiente en ferry a Zanzibar. Llevamos ya 4 dias aqui y estamos encantados con lo que hemos visto hasta ahora. Nos alojamos en Stonetown que ocupa una pequena parte de la ciudad, que tiene 3 caras al mar. Las calles son muy estrechas y laberinticas. Estan llenas de tiendas de ropa, recuerdos, comida etc. Te puedes perder facilmente pero no hay ningun peligro porque siempre sales al mar o a la calle principal que le da la vuelta a la ciudad. Nos recuerda un poco a Essauira. La gente es super amable y te saludan diciendo "Mambo, Jambo" " hola como estas". Luego te invitan a entrar en su tienda o simplemente dandote la bienvenidos a la isla diciendo "Karibu". Si les dices que estas un poco perdido o estas buscando una calle te dicen " Akuna matata" " no pasa nada" y te indiquen el camino o hasta a veces te acompanan. Ayer fuimos a una playa muy cerca de la ciudad y la tuvimos para nosotros solos. Eso si nos pico unas moscas de la arena y hoy tenemos unas picaduras de muerte que pican la hostia. Manana nos vamos a una playa en el norte de la isla que dicen que es una de las mejores de la isla.

Zambia (English)

2010-07-07T12:45:00.000+02:00

Finally after almost a month I am sitting down and writing an email.
In Zambia internet connections were almost non existent and if we had
one it was painfully slow. Now we are in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and
we have more connections.

Back to Zambia....

We had a great time in Zambia and traveled over 3 weeks together with
my mom. She came to pick us up in Lusaka airport after a 28hr trip
which included 4 airplane changes. When we arrived at the airport we
saw the Zambezi airlines plane which has it's wings and motors painted
with the Giraffe's spots. I thought that could only be seen here in
Africa (hopefully we will get a picture up). We spent 3 days in
Lusaka which we used to rest up, catch up with my mom and make our
future plans. Lusaka was somewhat disappointing as it really was not
what I thought a big African city would be. We basically went to
strip malls and big grocery stores, which we could have probably done
in Spain. After Lusaka we took a 7hr bus trip to Livingstone. Before
getting on the bus one of the Zambian customers, who was a little over
weight and very tall, complained to the bus driver that " there is a
problem, I do not fit in my seat". The women next to her said "oh,
you are blessed", and they both laughed. Being thin here is not a
sign of beauty, in fact it is just the opposite, having extra weight
is healthy and a sign of being wealthy. On the bus we watched a movie
called "Prey" about a safari gone wrong. These Zambians really have
a good sense of humor. In Livingstone the main attraction are the
Victoria Falls. There original name is Mosi-o-Tunya, which means the
smoke that thunders, which it definitely lives up to. On our way to
the falls we could already see the mist coming off them and hear them
long before we even saw them. We were stopped on the road by police
who were trying to shoo 2 big elephants who had entered into one of
the hotels compound and from what I could tell were not too happy.
The falls are beautiful and although the are not the highest ones the
are very wide and fall down into a gorge. It is impossible to get
near because, now after the rainy season the water level is very high,
there is so much mist coming off of them. In certain areas it is
almost as if it is pouring rain, but it is just the mist. The whole
area surrounding the falls are beautiful with many walking paths and
lots of baboons to entertain you. From there we walked on to the
bridge that connects Zambia to Zimbabwe but did not enter into
Zimbabwe. The next day we took transport to the border of Zambia and
Botswana, crossed the river which separates Zambia, Namibia, Botswana
and Zimbabwe. We were picked up in a Safari jeep, like the ones you
see in the movies, with a rag top, bench seating and no doors, and
driven to a Lodge next to Chobe National park. We took a river safari
in the morning on a small motorboat. Right away we started seeing
crocodiles, hippos, elephants, impala's, baboons, eagles, storks,
wildebeests, mongoose's etc. It was amazing the wildlife and how
close we could get to the animals, sometimes a bit to close for my
comfort. At one point we got stuck up on the bank next to a very
large crocodile and all I could think was " I'm not getting out to
push". In the afternoon we did a jeep safari into the park and saw
herds of buffalo's, giraffe's, kudu's and more of the same animal's we
saw in the morning. Again we got pretty close to some of them and the
experience was pretty awesome. I was hoping to see Zebra's and maybe
even a Lion but I knew that would be pretty difficult and hopefully we
will be seeing them here in Tanzania or Malawi. From Livingstone we
passed thru Lusaka again and next day took a bus at 3pm to Mpika in
the northern district. In Mpika we spent a few days buying food and
resting up a bit from our travels. From Mpika to Mpepo, my mom's
village, there is no public transport so you have to hitch. After
1.30hr we got picked up and rode in the back of a flat bed truck.
Mpepo is a small village with dirt roads and mud huts with thatch
roofs, or the more modern one's have tin roofs. My mom lives at the
end of the village, and only has one neighbor in front of her yard.
Her house is 3 rooms, a living room, bed room and kitchen or storage
area. Out side there is a round open hut with a thatch roof, cement
floor and that is where she cooks her food and her dining area. She
cooks all of her food in a charcoal pit which is on the floor while
sitting on a small stool. She has an outhouse with a pit toilet and a
shower area which is enclosed by the long grass. Every day we would
have to walk to the well to draw enough water for our cooking, showers
and cleaning. Any time we wanted to cook we would have to start a new
fire. All of these things took up almost half of our day, so you can
just imagine the ordeal of cooking or bathing. While we were in her
village we were asked to teach a class at school, which really was
made up of the students asking us questions about ourselves and our
lifestyles and customs. We also went to the chief's "palace" which is
a large compound with a larger than normal brick home with a tin roof
and of course TV. When we met him we had to get down on our knees and
clap our hands together and greet him by saying " Moi polaney moo
kwai". We then presented him with our gifts for both him and Mrs.
Chief Mpepo. We also borrowed " Zam bikes" and rode out to a nearby
village to see the river there. On Sunday we went to church and at
the end of 2hrs of signing and dancing were presented to the whole
village. We were called up to the front and each of the parishioners
walked up and shook our hands. On our last afternoon there we were
given a party by the local choir, which my mom supports. The killed a
goat, made us local food and local beer. Then the sang and danced for
us. After a week of being in Mpepo we hit the road again to hitch to
Kasama. In Kasama we spent a few days waiting to take the Tazara
train to Dar Es Salaam. One day we went and saw the painted rocks,
which was interesting, but our guide was not too good. There are over
1000 paintings but she only showed us 4! We also borrowed bikes and
rode out to Chishimba falls and camped there. It is a beautiful are
and the falls are quite nice.

Over all we had a great time in Zambia. The people are very friendly
and the transport was pretty reliable. Unfortunatley Zambia is not
geared for tourism and it is very expensive compared to many places we
have traveled to in Asia. AID's is a huge problem here and everyone
knows someone who is sick or who has died of it. It is not a poor
country and they don't seem to have problems with water shortages or
not having food.

On Wed we took the train at 4am to the border of Tanzania crossed over
and then stopped in the first major town on the Tanzanian side, Mbeya.
There we were told that there was an accident further on on the
tracks and that most likely we would be bussed to Dar es Salaam. This
was quite disappointing news since we were looking forward to the 2
day train trip and we had a whole sleeper compartment to ourselves.
Finally yesterday morning they boarded us on a bus for a 12hr bus
ride. We went thru a National park and saw Zebras, giraffes and
elephants, again quite exciting. Today we are here in Dar checking
out our options and hopefully tomorrow heading to a nearby beach or to
Zanzibar.

Zambia

2010-07-02T16:18:00.002+02:00

Hola a todos,

Por fin despues de casi tres semanas tengo una conexion de internet y el tiempo de escribir un email.

Nuestra aventura empezo con 28 horas de viaje desde Granada hasta que aterrizamos en el pequeno aeropuerto de Lusaka. Nada mas que aterrizar vimos un avion del Zambezi airlines que tenia la cola y los motores del avion pintados como las manchas de una girafa. Pense que eso solo se veria aqui en Africa! Mi madre nos estaba esperando en el aeropuerto y nos dio mucha alegria verla. Esta estupenda y super contenta aqui en Zambia. Pasamos los primeros dias en la ciudad de Lusaka y la verdad es que Lusaka no tiene mucho que ver ni ofrecer al turista. Es una a ciudad sin mucho encanto y es muy extensa y hay que coger un taxi a todos los lados, por la noche y en muchas zonas no es muy seguro andar por alli.
Nuestro primer destino despues de Lusaka fue Livingstone, al sur oeste y muy cerca de la frontera de Botswana, Namibia y Zimbabwe. En Livingstone estan las cataratas de Victoria y son una de las maravillas naturales. Son realmente impresionantes. Antes de llegar a las cataratas puedes ver una especia de humo, en realidad es el espray de las cataratas, y por eso su nombre local es Mosi-o-tunya, lo cual significa el humo que truena. Las cataratas no son tan altas pero si muy anchas y caen a una garganta. Nosotros las hemos visitado justo despues de la epoca de lluvias y en el rio Zambezi lleva muchisima agua. No te puedes acercar mucho a las cataratas sin acabar empapandote. En la zona de las cataratas hay muchos caminos para verlas y estan llenos de baboons. Antes de llegar pasamos por delante de un hotel donde estaba la policia intentando espantar dos elefantes que se habian metido en la entrada del hotel.
De Livingstone fuimos a Botswana para hacer un safari en Chobe National Park. Uno de los parques mas grandes de Africa. Por la manana hicimos un safari en una lancha pequena y pudimos ver muchos animales en el agua y otros en la orilla. Al principio vimos muchos cocodrilos y nos acercamos mucho a ellos. Tambien vimos unos hipopotamos, un poco demasiado cerca para mi gusto. Tambien pudimos ver elefantes, kudu, impalas, cerdos salvajes, bufalos y muchos pajaros. Al final de la vuelta en lancha estaba un poco cansada de ver cocodrilos, hipopotomos etc., habia tantos. Por la tarde dimos una vuelta en un vehiculo tipo Jeep como los que se ve en las peliculas. Alli vimos muchisimos elefantes y tambien nos acercamos mucho a ellos. Hay una poblacion de 65,000 elefantes en ese parque y parecen casi una plaga. Tambien vimos un monton de girafas, que animal mas extrano con su cuello tan largo y para agacharse se abre las piernas y mantiene una postura bastante graciosa. No vimos ninguno de los gatos, ni zebras ni rinocerantes pero tenemos esperanza verlos en algunos de los parques de Tanzania o Malawi.
Despues de Livingstone pasamos otra vez por Lusaka y luego cogimos otro autobus para subir al norte. En general las careteras no estan en mal estado y los autobuses tampoco. Tardamos casi 10 horas en llegar al pueblo de Mpika, en el norte de Zambia, alli nos quedamos unos dias descansando del viaje y comprando cosas para llevar al pueblo de mi madre, Mpepo. Tambien conocimos un Frances, Jean Baptist, que esta viviendo en la zona y trabajando con una ONG. El nos llevo a unas cataratas pequenas y a dar una vuelta por el monte. Tambien pudimos ver un poco del Mundial y sabemos que Espana sigue, OLE! Al final emprendimos camino hacia Mpepo. Para llegar alli hay que hacer autoestop como no hay ningun tipo de transporte publico. Eso es muy tipico aqui y no suele ser peligroso. Despues de 1.30hr nos recogio un camion con la parte trasera abierta. Nosotros nos sentamos fuera y mi madre dentro con el conductor. Tardamos otro 1.30hr en llegar a su pueblo. Mi madre conocia el conductor y no nos cobro nada y nos dejo casi en la puerta de la choza de mi madre. Ella vive en una zona muy retirada del pueblo. Su choza esta hecha de barro y el techo de una especia de cesped muy larga. Tiene un salon, una habitacion y una cocina, aunque no cocina alli. Fuera tiene un bano, sin agua corriente, una ducha al aire libre y tampoco tiene agua corriente. Hay una especie de kiosko redondo de la misma construcion que la casa y alli es donde hace sus fuegos de carbon para cocinar y donde comemos y lavamos los platos. Todos los dias hay que ir al pozo y recoger agua, hacer el fuego para desayunar, comer y cenar. Siempre hay que recoger toda la comida y limpiar bien para que no haya bichos no deseados. Para ducharse hay que llenar un cubo y con un vaso de agua ir lavandote. Todo esas cosas ocupan la mayoria de tu dia. Su pueblo no es muy grande y todo el mundo la conoce. Es la unica blanca y extranjera en el pueblo. Para ellos verla es algo especial pero para ver tres blancos fue una locura. Cuando saliamos de su casa y ibamos al mercado o cualquier parte siempre teniamos un desfile. Los perros iban delante y luego nosotros tres seguidos por un monton de ninos. Los que no nos seguian venian corriendo para saludarnos o gritababan "How are you (como estas?)". Mi madre se ha hecho amiga de un coro local y nos recibieron en su pueblo con canciones y musica y el ultimo dia hicieron una fiesta para nosotoros donde mataron a una cabra y hicieron todos sus platos tradicionales. Tambien fuimos a la iglesia. Es todo un espectaculo y dura 2 horas. La mayoria del tiempo estan cantando y bailando. Al final de la misa nos presentaron a la iglesia y tuvimos que ponernos delante de todos y esperar hasta que vinieron uno por uno a darnos la bienvenida y la mano. Conocimos un profesor del colegio quien nos pidio que dieramos una clase. Al final estuvimos casi 2 horas contestando preguntas sobre nosotros, Espana y los EEUU. Lo que mas les gustaron es como nos damos dos besos para saludar, alli nunca se ve una pareja tocarse.
Despues de una semana otra vez volvimos a la carretera esperando a alguien para recogernos y traernos mas al norte a Kasama. Y aqui estamos. Llegamos ayer y nos alojamos en la casa de la ONG, Peace Corps, de mi madre. Nos quedamos aqui hasta el martes por la noche cuando cogemos un tren para Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Tenemos planeado ir a unas cataratas con bicicleta y tambien visitar unas pinturas rupestres.

Total. Nos gusta mucho Zambia. La gente es muy simpatica y no son agresivas. La comida tipica es Nshima (una especie de arepa), una masa hecha de harina de trigo y maiz, que lo comen con las manos y lo utilizan como tenedor para coger las verduras, la carne etc. Aqui no se ve nadie muriendose de hambre y no se ve mucha pobreza. De hecho creo que Zambia es una pais bastante rico en agua y con una tierra muy fertil. El transporte es bastane bueno pero en las partes rurales es un poco dificil llegar a muchos sitios por la falta de transporte publico. Lo que si hay es mucho SIDA y todos conocen a alguien o tienen familiares que lo tiene o se han muerto de SIDA.

Esperemos que en Tanzania tengamos mas oportunidades de usar el internet y una conexion mas rapida para subir algunas fotos.

Espero que todos estan bien.

Muchos besos,

Antonio y Carmen

Nos VAMOS

2010-06-10T13:37:00.000+02:00

Por fin, un post en español........... He tardado mucho pero os prometo en este viaje que estaré escribiendo en Ingles y Español.
Mañana cogemos el avion y me muero de ganas de ver lo que nos ofrece Africa!

And we are off....

2010-06-01T13:19:00.000+02:00

We have less than two weeks before we fly off to Lusaka, Zambia. I am getting very excited for this years trip and cannot wait to see what Africa has to offer us. We bought a new tent yesterday and some super lite sleeping mats. We plan on camping during most of our journey and therefor have invested quite a bit of money in the equipment. I have been forewarned that we are going in the dry season/winter there so we will also have to pack warm clothes. I am starting to worry about the weight of my backpack. I have already pulled out my travel clothes, yes the same ones I wear every year in the pictures, and will be deciding what to bring. I need to think light and then all the little things like swiss army knives, head lamps, tents etc will probably end up being about 12-16 kg. Which is a lot to be lugging around on your back from place to place. Two years ago in Papua New Guinea I packed a snake bite kit which I bought in Walmart. Thank god I never had to use that because I don´t know if it would have really worked or not. But this year since there was no previous trip to the States, I have no snake bit kit. Fortunately I just read on my mom´s blog, http://maryellenrivero.blogspot.com, that with the rainy season gone the snake´s have gone too. I hope that is true!
Well I am not sure how often I will be able to post during our trip, but I promise every chance I get I will let you know how things are going.

Happy summer

It´s snowing

2010-04-30T17:48:00.001+02:00

Oops, that´s not snow. They are little white ¨feather-like¨ seeds which make your headache terrible and send you into a sneezing fit. I love spring time. I love the nice weather, all the sun, starting to bare some skin etc. But these last few years I have begun to have signs of allergies. I wake up with a sore throat or a dry mouth. I have a constant headache in a place where I never knew I could have one. I pass from one area of town to the next and depending on what kind of trees are planted there or the pollen floating in the air in that area I have one symptom or another. Each year I pray that my symptoms have not worsened and I will be able to make it through the spring and be able to enjoy one of my favorite times of the year. I truly hope I do not have to end up with one of those surgical masks on my face. If that would be the case I think I would rather opt for the whole helmet gear with a respiratory device, something like Darth Vader, but in pink for girls. Three cheers to all those who suffer from allergies and grin and bare it, you are the real deal!

Tweaking

2010-04-26T19:40:00.000+02:00

Just finished my ¨all about blogs¨ online class and am happy to say that hopefully little by little I will be updating more often and promise to tweak my blog a bit to get better results. I never really knew that there were so many options and really thought a blog was something very easy and simple. The only really simple part is getting it up and running but then there are tons of options. I guess I shouldn´t be suprised the days of drinking a ¨coffee with milk¨ are over we now live in a ¨tall, non-fat, mocha with whip cream¨ world.

Social Health

2010-03-12T17:46:00.001+01:00

So for all of you who have no idea how social health works, I want to give you a GREAT example.
I have been having problems with my hands falling asleep. It occurs at night time while I am lying in my bed, no I am not lying on my hands, lying flat on my back. During the night I am awoken various times by a horrible, painful numbness in my hands. I finally made an appointment to see my general practitioner, which is usually pretty quick and you can get in from one day to the next. She then examines me and decides if she can treat me or if I need to be referred to a specialist. Well this is my second appointment with her for this problem and after exaggerating and breaking down in tears she finally gave me a referral for a specialist, a neurologist. I was given an appointment for a month in a half later. So this Monday I went to my appointment where I was examined by the neurologist. He took out his little hammer and hammered on my shoulder, neck and hands. He made me bend my arms behind my back, turn my head and wiggle my fingers. Then he typed in his notes to his computer and asked if I had been given ¨the test¨, which I responded ¨no¨. He then gave me a referral for ¨the test¨, which supposedly is to see if I have any nerve damage and a referral to see the neurologist after my test. I went to the secretary with my referrals and she gave me an appointment for ¨the test¨in OCTOBER 2010 and then proceeded to tell me that the neurologists agenda is closed and I have to call in September for an appointment. I did the obvious jaw drop and said ¨October¨ and then began to laugh hysterically. All I could think about was that if I didn´t have any nerve damage now it is very probable that I will have some by the time October rolls around. I also know that when I call in September for the neurologist appointment I am more than likely to get one months down the road. Then when I finally get in to see him/her I hope that I am not told ¨oh these tests are from last year, they are too old and we need to repeat them¨. HA!
So what are my options til October. I have decided to either sleep standing or sitting, take massive muscle relaxers and therefor will not be awoken by the pain, or drink large quantities of alcohol in hopes of passing out and not waking til the next morning. HHMMM I will let you all know the decision I make.

Lions and tigers and bears....oh my

2010-03-10T10:30:00.001+01:00

Well not really bears but lions and tigers, yes. These animals and many more is what I hope to see this year on our vacation in Africa. Yesterday we bought our tickets for this summer. We fly on June 11th to Lusaka, Zambia and return August 25th from Lilongwe, Malwi. We bought tickets with Ethiopian Airlines, which I have to admit makes me a little nervous. The tickets with British airways were 400€ more each and the prices were rising daily. I am sure the difference in price has to do with the world cup being celebrated in Johannesburg this summer and the fact that the BA flights pass thru there. I also ordered my new Zambia and Malawi lonelyplanet, which will be coming out in 2 days and with the tickets and the guide book bought the only thing left is to wait for June 11th.
Just a quick follow up on my last post. Today we are having a beautiful sunny day, COLD, but sunny. It is the second day in a row and it´s amazing to see what a little sunshine can do for your state of being. Tomorrow we are expecting rain again, but til then I will enjoy the day.

Winter or Spring??

2010-02-24T12:49:00.001+01:00

Wow, we are at the time of year where you don´t know if it is winter or spring with all the weather changes; freezing cold, snowing, torrential down pours etc. What is evident is the global warming and how the seasons are shifting and becoming allot milder. This December, I think about the 22, it started to rain and has not stopped since. I think we have seen less than of week of sun since then. Living in southern Spain, this is not common. In fact last year they were talking about droughts and water shortages. This year we are having flooding and have received more rain in the last 2 months than we would in a year. To be more exact, over double the rain. I am starting to see mold growing where I have never seen it before. The wooden doors are so swollen from the humidity that sometimes it takes me almost 5 minutes to leave the house. I tug and tug on the front door and it just won´t budge. I wonder if my skin will start to wrinkle too, like when you stay in the bath tub too long. Today on a tapestry, which is hung on the wall of our spare room, I saw mold. I looked behind it to see if it came through the wall, but no. Where could this mold be coming from??? One of my shoes in my closet was green and hairy! These are freak of nature things which I think I should be documenting. In 2175 when they talk about the wettest winter ever, 2009-2010, they can quote these documented phenomenons. I hope within the next few months I am not complaining about the hottest summer ever! Oh mother nature is not happy with us.

Coffee break

2009-12-05T11:15:00.001+01:00

About three days ago I heard on the radio that 6 women had been arrested in Granada for shoplifting in the local stores. Supposedly the were stealing winter wear and coats. I immediately called the police station and asked to go in and look at pictures of the women who were arrested. I was really hoping this time I would be able to identify at least one of them as the ones who stole from me. So we agreed that I would go in at 10am on Friday morning. At 9.55am I walked into an empty office with everything switched off and the door was unlocked, allowing me or anyone else to have free reign of the office and any ¨Top Secret¨ documents that were left on the desk or in the unlocked drawers. I waited for about 5 minutes and then another officer came out of a different department and asked if I was waiting and if I had an appointment. I said ¨yes, at 10am¨. He said ¨bueno es la hora del cafecito¨,¨it´s coffee break time¨ and that they should not be long. He also said maybe I could come back at a different time. I was still trying to digest the coffee break thing. He could have said well they must have had some emergency and that is why they are not here to make your appointment. Then he said again, ¨espera un poco, seguro estan tomando un cafe por alli y no tardaran mucho¨, ¨wait a little bit, they are probably just getting a coffee and won´t be long¨. I told him I had to work and could not wait all morning or come back later. I waited for 30 mins and no one came. Sometimes the laid backness of the Spaniards really erk me. This is something that is very common here. If you go to the bank at 10am you will normally only find one teller working because the other is on his coffee break. But they only work 8.30 to 2.30 and just started 1.30hr earlier??? I don´t understand this. In many stores around 10.30 or 11am you can find little signs hanging on the doors saying ¨be back in 10¨. But you just opened??? I have to admit that in my own store I am guilty of this sometimes but usually it is to get a coffee to go and I take not even 10 mins not the normal 30mins that everyone else takes.
Just like living anywhere things will get on your nerves from time to time and the relaxed attitude, for me is a love hate relationship. Some days you just handle things better than others. Some days I just laugh things off and think to myself ¨only here¨and other days I feel like exploding. Luckily the later does not happen to often.

Private eyes are watching you

2009-11-28T11:48:00.000+01:00

I am now officially being watched. The fear and paranoia of being robbed again has made us decide to install security cameras. My real hopes are that if I do get robbed again they will be ¨caught on tape¨ and can be punished accordingly. The part where I lock the door and do my ¨kung-fu¨ ass kicking will be deleted off.
So not only am I blogging my daily life and feelings but I have also gone to video. Is nothing private anymore? I hope the cameras are not like those x-ray glasses where they can see thru your clothes or read into my thoughts. I still have a small part of me that I would like to keep to myself. I do have a private corner or ¨angle¨ where I am out of sight of the camera. So when I feel like jumping up and down, screaming, or making obscene jestures I can retreat to my small hide away.
I still have not figured out if I can be heard. I will have to ask if sound is also being taped. If not, I can keep talking to myself outloud and at least my phone conversations or skype calls will be private. I am wondering, what will be the next step? Like those stunt men who strap cameras on their helmets, I could walk thru my days with one strapped to my shoulder, like a parrot.
Well three cheers to broadcasting.....¨three, two, one....and we are live on the air¨.

I´ve fallen and I can´t get up

2009-11-23T11:26:00.000+01:00

This weekend I fell down once again. I scraped my kneee, bumped my head and just when I thought I would pass out my prince charming once again swooped in to save me. I just wonder when he will grow tired of picking me up after tripping over the same obstacles again and again. You would think one would learn from their mistakes and try and better oneself....but no. During the week I do so many things to better myself spiritually, mentally and physically and then the weekend comes around and I seem to become a different person. This time like every other time I say ¨I am done, I will change¨. I hope I do. I hope I find the strength that I have within which I use to get me thru the week to also get me thru the weekends. So once again, thank you my prince.

Stick em up

2009-11-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

Why is it that when you are robbed either forcefully or without knowing, you feel like a complete idiot. You feel violated and you can´t believe that something like that has happened to YOU! How could have I have been so stupid to not realize that someone was taking something from me. After blaming yourself for a while and feeling violated those feelings evolve into rage and thoughts of revenge. If it happens again, I´d like to know some crazy martial art and do some major ass kicking. The thought of that or those who robbed you being brought to justice is pure delight.
How come we can work so hard to acheive things and someone can walk in and in 5 minutes take a part of that away from you?

I then have to remind myself that what was stolen was purely materialistic and the situation could have been worse. Sometimes I feel like selling everything and keeping only the necessary. Then there wouldn´t be anything to steal. Unfortunately at this point in my life I don´t think that is possible.

For now I think I will sign up for some Karate or Tae kwon do and hope that if the situation were to repeat itself I will be more on guard and be able to do that ¨ass kicking¨.

Muscle relaxers

2009-11-06T19:44:00.000+01:00

I went to my General Practioner the other day because I have been having problems sleeping. The problems are a direct result of the fact that during the middle of the night my hands go numb and I have a painful ¨pins and needles¨ feeling in them which yanks me out of my otherwise ¨light¨sleep. I never have been able to get a really good´s night sleep due to other circumstances, but that´s a different post. I was hoping that my doctor would be able to give me a solution or recommend me to a specialist. I had gone on my own to 2 different massage therapist, which specialize in sport´s or deep tissue massage. Both told me that my muscles were over devolped and were pushing on my nerve. But since things were not getting any better I thought I might as well go the Doctor route. After touching my shoulder and neck she prescribed Vitamin B and muscles relaxers. Each I am to take for a whole month. The vitamin B, I am okay with, but muscle relaxers for a whole month. That seems like a lot. I am afraid I will become an addict after a month. The good thing is instead of just my hands going numb my whole body feels numb and I sleep like a baby. I also see this as another temporary solution. But I have decided to try it and hopefully after a month I will not be looking in sketchy neighborhoods looking for someone to sell me my dosis of pain killers so I can sleep¨like a baby¨.

Snail Mail

2009-11-03T13:23:00.000+01:00

I have to say that I am a true romantic. I love when the doorbell rings and upon opening it I find the post woman standing there with a letter in her hand. That´s how my day started today. This little white envelope with the blue and red stripes around the border was being handed to me. I immediately knew it was from my mom, in Zambia. The blue square in the corner with the words, ¨by airmail¨, and the zambian stamp costing K3,300 in the right hand corner were dead give aways. I know that we are in an era where letters are almost extinct but if you can imagine, there are actually still places on this planet that do not have an internet connection. Cell phones, that´s a whole different story. For example, my mom, who is in Zambia working with the Peace Corps. The nearest town with Internet is 100km and she has to hitch hike to get there so you can see how snail mail is another option. But what I really am wanting to get at is the joy of opening a little white letter and recieving an email is not the same. It´s so much more exciting to get mail, which isn´t junk or bills. Someone has actually taken the time to write, gone to the post office, purchased a stamp and mailed the letter. That is so much more note worthy. So a big thanks to my mom for making my day!

Updates

2009-10-28T18:19:00.001+01:00

I am pasting and copying old emails from past travels to my blog. Unfortunately I cannot find any further back than 2 years. So there are no emails about India, Mexico, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, or our first Thailand trip. So many memories, people we met on the way and adventures. I am hoping that someone that I might have emailed so many years ago may be a ¨pack rat¨and not errase any of their emails, for ocasions just like these. I am going to check a few other sources and post whatever I find.

Born abroad

2009-10-27T19:03:00.001+01:00

I was born in Papua New Guinea to parents who were missionaries. We lived there until I was three and unfortunately I don´t think I can remember much. I have problems remembering things that happened in highschool so it would be incredible if I could remember when I was 3. In 2008 we returned to PNG and I walked over the border from Irian Jaya into Papua New Guinea on my birthday. It was an amazing experience and I will try to post more on that with pictures.

Going Public

2009-10-27T18:33:00.001+01:00

This is my first post and another step to making my life, and those who share my adventures, more public. I have been meaning to get a blog going in order to share my travel experiences and even a little bit of my every day life. I have given my blog the name ¨part time gypsys¨ because for the last 7 years we, my partner and I, have traveled for 2-3mos periods each year. The rest of the year we work and dream about our next destination. I hope to post past emails and pictures of our travels to get caught up and will even try to make a post once in awhile about what is going on with my day to day. I apologize ahead of time if my day to day is not to thrilling but it is a ¨means to an end¨. So I will officially say ¨Welcome to my blogspot¨or ¨Bienvenidos a mi blog¨.

Back to Bali

2009-08-02T14:28:00.000+02:00

August 02,2009

We have just spent the last few days riding around on a motorbike and exploring eastern Bali. The motorbike costs us $3 dollars a day and we have been enjoying our freedom. We found a beautiful area on the beach where we chilled for a few days. We had a nice bungalow on a little cove, in Ahmed, which is littered with fisherman's boats. The boats look like spiders and have a colourful sail. In the morning they all sail out to see before sunrise. As the sun comes up the boats look like little flags off in the distance, the sight is beautiful. Then about 7am they all sail back to shore and are pulled up onto the beach. There are many areas to snorkel and we saw two wrecks, a big American ship and a piece of a Japanese ship. I have never seen an underwater wreck and was quite impressed and at the same time a little scared. We saw some colourful fish on our immersions and even a sea snake, yikes. Where we stayed the owner was Japanese and loved to cook. We were treated to $2-3 dollar dishes, like tuna tataki and fish curry. The food was delicious and put some of the better restaurants that we have eaten at to shame. In the same area is the Volcano Agung. It is not active but still a beautiful sight to see and the sunsets with it as a backdrop were amazing.

The last week of driving around on the motorbike has made me want to comment on some of the transport here. The motorbike is definitely the family vehicle as anywhere from 2-5 people can fit on one. Normally you will see 3 or 4 people on it, the father driving and two children squeezed behind him and the mother bringing up the rear. The other method is one in front, leaning on the gas tank, the dad behind and one or two children in front of the mom. It's really quite amazing. Sometimes the whole family wears helmets and other times none of them do. They weave in and out of traffic, going down one way streets or pulling up on the sidewalk. Here you can merge into traffic without ever looking and just assume that the others will weave around to avoid you. I have also realized that street signs, mile markers, marked streets are almost non existent. If they do exist they are strategically placed behind a tree or within its branches. I even saw one sign which was placed behind the pole of an advertisement, the pole ingeniously covering up just the arrow which indicated the direction. I am so puzzled by all the well hidden signs that I have drawn the conclusion that they do this on purpose. It's like "where's Wally". If you can find the sign then you can find the right direction.

Flores

2009-07-26T21:09:00.000+02:00

July 26, 2009

I had a great birthday here in Bali. Antonio took me shopping and bought me a new surfer bikini, very appropriate since we are in surfer heaven. Then we went for an hour Balinese massage and later out for Japanese food. It was a great day.

The last week has been full of last minute changes and a little disappointment. After leaving our beautiful little beach in Waelengga we stayed one night in Ruteng and the next day were picked up by car for the next part of our journey to Labuanbajo, the eastern most part of Flores on the coast. We had booked a "travel" bus the night before in our hotel and when we saw a small SUV come and pick us up I was pretty surprised. This could only mean one of two things, either they were taking us by car to the bus station or we would be travelling by car to Labuanbajo. When we got in the car there were only two other customers, the car seats 6, and I thought no way could we be so lucky to travel the next 4 hours in luxury. I asked the guy in my "best" Indonesian, if they were picking anyone else up. He said "no". But after 10 minutes and driving around the market twice, I realized he didn't understand my question. We were looking for other customers to fill the car and wouldn't be leaving until we found them. Luckily it only took about 40 minutes and when ALL 10 of us were crammed into the car, we left for Labuanbajo. Antonio was sitting in the passenger's seat and I was in the middle seats by the window, so we were pretty well off. The guys in the last seats behind us had to travel with their luggage on their laps. It was a fairly uneventful ride, if you don't count the 4 loud ass burps, three farts and the guy next to me shaving. He threw his old razor on the ground and I made a mental note not to step on it during the journey. We of course had to stop 1hr 30 into the trip for lunch. WHAT??? It was 9.30 and we had just had breakfast 2 hours ago. With a little bit of patience and a good sense of humour these little hiccups are actually something to laugh at.
Finally we arrived at Labuanbajo, a little town on the bay. We had called and luckily booked ahead for a room, because when we arrived everything was FULL. In our hotel they told us we could only stay 2 nights and then we would have to find something else since they were booked. We went to check out the island, which we wanted to visit and the availability there, only to find out that they were booked as well. They said they would put us on a waiting list but until someone checked out they couldn't tell us when they would have a room. This was somewhat frustrating and nerve racking since we only had a room for 2 days and after one night there we still didn't have a room on the island. The next day we woke up and decided to check flights back to Bali, only to find out that everything was book until August. We had our flight for the 3rd of August but I was afraid that if we couldn't get to the island soon we would be stuck in this little town with no hotel and no island. Finally after running back and forth to airline companies, one said they could get us on the flight that same day at 2pm, we said okay. So we paid for the ticket and got our things together and went to the airport. Just as check in was starting the same guy who issued us the ticket came over and asked us to step into the office, he then told us that they were very sorry but that they were overbooked and since we booked the tickets last he was hoping that we wouldn't mind staying one more day. He told us he would book us a hotel and transport to and from the airport and we would for sure be on a flight the next day. I was really perplexed since he swore to me in his office earlier that day that there was no way we could take the flight Friday since they were overbooked. He promised that he would get us on that flight and so we reluctantly agreed. He took us back to his office in town and after calling for an hour to hotels, all were booked, finally got us a very nice room in a good hotel. We both thought "oh well" there are worse places to be stuck at and since we really were not in a hurry it wasn’t such a big deal. The next day they picked us up at the hotel and only after we got our boarding passes at the airport could I relax, but at 11.15 our plane didn't come and we were starting to think that we were going to be stuck here another day. Finally at 12.30 our plane flew in. It was a 50 seater, prop jet plane. I like these planes better than the bigger ones since they fly lower and the view is so much better. We flew over all the islands in Nusa Tenggara, seeing beautiful beaches, tiny islands, and volcanoes.
So now we have been back in Bali and are deciding what to do for the next 2 weeks. This week we will rent a motorbike and explore the nearby beaches and maybe even go back to Ubud, which we liked from our trip last year. A friend we met in Papua, George, is flying in this week and we are looking forward to seeing him. We are also thinking of going to the nearby island of Nusa Lebongan for a few days.

Flores, Indonesia

2009-07-07T21:05:00.000+02:00

July 7, 2009

I thought I would give you all a little briefing on our travels but first to explain a bit how we travel.

Antonio and I decide on our destination and then buy our RT tickets. We don't book tours, hotels, guides etc. We have somewhat of an idea of where we want to go and what we want to see but we are always open to suggestions from other travellers. When I said that we had a guide in Sumba, I meant for only one day. We took one of the guys from the guest house because we were going to go to some small villages where we obviously don't speak the language and we would like to understand what we are seeing and be able to communicate with the locals. Plus I think it is very rude to poke my camera in people’s faces, houses etc without asking permission and also showing interest for them and their cultures.

Since my last email we have been to a little village up in the mountains. We rented a motorbike in Ende and drove to Moni, where the volcano Kelimutu is located. It is a volcano with three craters which have lakes of distinct colour in each one. The lakes change colour every few years do to the mineral and sulphur levels and also the weather. Now the lakes are turquoise, dark green and black. We also visited a few traditional villages which are known for there weavings of ikats. They are nice and some take weeks while others up to 4 months. The people here are very nice and instead of the typical "hello mista" we get "hello, where are you going". In our bungalows "mama" the owner made home cooked meals for us every night and we were even offered to try dog, but declined.
Here in Ende there is a nice market and they sell some pretty big fish here. We have seen shark, Manta Sting Rays, large tuna and other smaller fishes. We will be going tomorrow to a small town called Boawe to the west of Ende.

I thought I'd include some funny things that people have said or yelled to us....
"hello mista. I love you and your woman"
" hello foreign"
"bule" which literally means white person

Sumba, Indonesia

2009-07-02T20:55:00.000+02:00

July 2, 2009

When we got off the plane we saw family members greet each other by rubbing their noses together and I had to ask myself "where are we?" We had just landed in Tambulaka, Sumba after a 40 minute plane ride from Bali. Sumba is to the east of Bali and we stayed in the western part of the island. The plane we flew on must have been at least 40 years old and I was thankful to disembark into a small one roomed terminal where we were immediately swarmed by people offering us "transport mista". We had to endure the pestering for about 30 minutes until our luggage arrived. Luckily Sumbanese are not aggressive and are just looking to make some money and if not maybe conversation. Finally we left with our privately hired transport to Waikabubak, yes it took me all week to finally be able to remember the name. Waikabubak is a run down, dusty town with hardly any if not no entertainment whatsoever. We checked into the hotel and decided to take one of the extremely basic rooms, fan, bed, bucket shower and western toilet (nice treat not having a squat toilet) and no sink. The next day a wedding was taking place and the tour guide from the hotel was going to be busy with that so we decided to walk around and see the town and the near by traditional villages. We went to the market where we saw dogs and goats tied to posts for sale and later for eating, motor bikes with a wood pole horizontally placed off the back and tuna and mackerel hanging of that. We saw the typical betel nut used for chewing and spitting up large pools of red saliva and rolled tobacco which they smoke, chew or just stick under there top lip. The women and men wear woven "ikat" sarongs as skirts, the women long and the men short. The men wear a wide leather belt to keep theirs in place and in the belt they carry a medium sized sword/machete in an intricately carved wooden sheath with a buffalo horn handle. There were barely any restaurants and most people eat in make shift little shacks where food is served. They usually have the typical fried rice, grilled chicken or fish and all served with an extremely spicy chilli sauce (my stomach is still thanking me today). Our guide had invited us to the wedding and we went for a little bit and because we were the only white people there, not to mention in the town, we attracted a lot of attention. Finally after the wedding was over our guide took us on a motorbike trip to some of the nearby traditional villages. The first village was truly amazing. The traditional homes with high roofs made from long grass and the houses made of bamboo were like out of a movie. The grass hangs low over the balconies and that's where the villagers sit performing their daily duties, breaking the skin from coffee beans, weaving baskets, sharpening knives, drying vanilla etc and of course all the while chewing their betel nut and the men smoking their cigarettes. In front of each cluster of houses is a ceremonial area where there is a small carved statue and large above ground tombs with immense rock lids. The dead are buried sitting up hugging their knees and depending on the size of the family sometimes the whole family is buried in one tomb. We went from house to house visiting the villagers, while some ran to hide, most invited us over and offered us betel nut, bananas and tea. The houses were set up on a hill and it was very green and lush the surrounding area. It was not a tourist thing and like I said it was an incredible experience. We went on to another village later that afternoon which we could only get to by hiking up a winding narrow path. We also rented the motorbike a few days by ourselves and we drove to some of the beautiful deserted beaches and visited other villages. One of the days while we had stopped to take pictures of a procession on the street, a girl ran over and in very good English invited us to participate in a funeral. The funerals can last days and they slaughter many pigs, buffalos and this time even a horse. Luckily we didn't stay long enough to presence that.
In The whole duration of our stay we may have seen 10 tourists and were always received enthusiastically with a "hello mista" and an occasional "hello misses". In fact all the while walking thru towns, villages, driving on our motorbikes people yelled the same "hello mista" and if you gave a wave they were happy. Even the first night we were there and the lights had gone out and there was no moon people still recognized us in the pitch black and yelled after us.
Today we left on another 40 year old plane to an island north of Sumba called Flores. We will be here for the next month. When we arrived at our hotel and saw our room Antonio said "ooh it's nice to be back to a little civilization". This comment came from the fact that there was a "mandi" a shower head in our bathroom. Aaaah, life’s little luxuries.

Back to Asia

2009-06-21T20:54:00.000+02:00

June 21, 2009

Another year and we are back in Southeast Asia and as always I am super happy to be here. When we landed in Bangkok we were surprised by good weather, which means less than 100% humidity and under 90 F. I don't want to bore you with the same details from other years so I have decided to share a few things that have come to my awareness before but I really never paid much attention too. First off things have changed a little in Bangkok, prices have gone up and quality down, I assume this has to do with the economic crisis. The backpackers don't look as "hippy" as before and have changed their fisherman pants for jeans and summer dresses. The traffic is just as congested as before on the busy streets but I realized that no matter how long you can be stuck in a traffic jam very few people are honking their horns or becoming upset. Another funny thing is that the Thai's love their menthol scents. They sometimes use a balm and dab it under their nose, which I assume avoids bad smells or getting car sick. But this year I realized that many also use the menthol in a stick which you can jam up your nose as frequently as you like and inhale. Some for more convenience just leave it stuck in their nostril, assuming you have the right size nostril, not too big or too small, and cruise around town with it sticking out of their noses, breathing in the fresh menthol air of Bangkok. I promise you before I go I will try this, assuming I have the perfect size nostril.
Yesterday we left Bangkok and flew to Bali and here we are in Kuta beach, surfer paradise. Here in Bali people instead of handbags or ipods they carry around surf boards. I thought I would do the same but my size surf board, made for beginners only or a two year old, and 3 times my size is not so easy to drag around plus you definitely do not look cool with it. I love being back in the sun and hanging at the beach. The Balinese have a very refined culture and are very hospitable. We are planning to go to Flores from here, which is one of the eastern islands of Nusa Tenggara. We haven't decided if we are flying or taking a bus/ferry trip, which would take like 3 days, to get there. Actually I think Antonio has decided but is amusing me by saying he will go to the bus station to check times and prices.

Papua New Guinea

2008-08-14T14:43:00.000+02:00

On July 24 we went to the Papua New Guinea consulate in Jayapura to check on our visas. The guy working there said for me not to worry and that he would help us get our visas by the following day, friday. So we went back into town and met up with our friend George and two of his highschool friends. George had to go meet with the Governor's treasurer, in order to be payed for his trip and the talks he would be doing. He invited us to come along and when we got to the governor's residence (mind you we were wearing shorts and flip flops) we were invited up into the treasurer's office. We were given drinks and snacks and the treasurer seemed really happy to meet us and eventually asked if there was "anything" we needed in Jayapura. We said no, not wanting to ask for anything, but George went on to tell him about how we were trying to get our visas for PNG and that we would be trying to get a taxi to the border. He immediately offered his drivers to take us all the way to Vanimo, the closest town on the PNG side. Then one of the guys rang the PNG consulate and 5 mins later they called me on our mobile saying our visas were ready! The next day in the morning we went and picked up our visas and then went back to the governor's residence to meet with his driver's. They took us in a nice air conditioned (not so common here) SUV, and bought us drinks and grapes for the trip. They told us in the car that there had been some shootings on the border and that they were pretty sure it would be open for us to cross but not to sure about how safe it was on the PNG side. I was starting to get a little worried about the safety issue in PNG since everyone was telling me that it can be pretty dangerous. On our way to the border we went thru two check points, in one we were asked to take pictures with the soldier there. After passing the Indonesian border we drove about 30m (no mans land) to the PNG border. The drivers did not drive thru and turned the car around, again facing the Indonesian side. They did not speak much english so they tried to explain to me that they could not cross the border but we could. Normally Indonesians can go back and forth in a day with an identity card but because of the shooting at the border they were only letting those who had a valid passport and visa through. So we walked across the border, under a big sign that read "Welcome to Papua New Guinea", and filled in the paper work and got our entry stamps on our visas. After we came out the two driver's were waiting for us and I asked them if they knew how we could get to the nearest town and if they could change us Rupiahs for Kinas (PNG currency), earlier they stopped at a currency exchange and changed over $150 in rupiahs to kinas. They handed me 500 kina, about $160 value. When I tried to give them rupiahs in exchange they refused. I think the governor's office had given them an allowance for the trip and they felt pretty bad and were a little worried that they couldn't take us all the way to Vanimo. The soldier at the border told us that we could wait for a PMV (a bus) there, but it would take longer, or walk one kilometer to the town of Watung and catch a PMV there. He said don't worry it's "safe" now. I thought of the shootings and that if they have to tell you it is safe that means that sometimes it is unsafe. So we started walking down the hill through rainforest, coconut trees and very lush vegetation. The PNG side is totally different from the Indonesian side and immediately it reminded me of all the slides and pictures from my childhood. We walked on thru a little village with the jungle on our right and the ocean to the left. The houses, made of bamboo woven walls, on stilts and thatch roofs, were built on the sandy beach. Little children, some without clothes, laughed when they saw us and ran next to us, all the adults said "gude" (good day) and some even indicated us where we should wait for a PMV. I will add that most of the adults carried machetes and some knives in their hands or stuck in their pants and all had blood red stained mouths from chewing the betel nut. I was a little nervous (about the safety issue), excited and overwhelmed at the idea of after all these years finally coming back to the country of my birth and on my birthday. I couldn't help crying, it was a very special moment. I think I was also hoping we wouldn't get robbed or worse... Finally we came to the military post where we were supposed to wait for the PMV. About 5 guys came over to us, they were soldiers in casual dress, and asked us what we were doing. They then showed us where we could wait and said they would help us get the PMV. So for the next hour we sat with these guys and they gave us some valuable info on the country, typical foods, and told us about themselves etc.. When the PMV finally came they helped us with our bags and told the driver where to drop us and after taking pictures we all said goodbye and we would see them on the way back in August. I couldn't believe our luck. First we were driven to the border for free, then given 500K and then met some really nice locals. The hour drive to Vanimo was beautiful and just what I imagined it would be, very South Pacific. The people are also very South Pacific looking, not asian. When we arrived in Vanimo we were dropped at a hotel but when they told me they charged 215K ($70) the night, I couldn't believe it. How could they charge so much? So I told Antonio to wait with the bags and I would go and look for a cheaper place. I walked on and asked directions to a Guesthouse I was told about in the hotel. The man said "oh, okay I will take you there". It was about 20 mins up a steep hill and when we arrived he said I will wait for you and walk back with you. I looked at the rooms and finally the cheapest room they had was in a little house for 98K ($33). So we went back and I said goodbye to my new friend Joe and thanked him for showing me the way. As we started to climb the steep hill, this time with our backpacks, a truck stopped and said are you going to Visser Guesthouse. We said yes and he said it's my mom's place I will take you there. The owner was from Indonesia and married to a Dutch guy, she had 7 kids almost all adults with their own families. Earlier I had seen a birthday cake in her house and so I asked her who's birthday it was and she said "mine" and I said oh it's mine too. Later she brought us birthday cake. We spent the weekend there visiting the town and the market. Everyone was super nice, they all stopped to shake our hands and talk to us. It was hard to believe that this was a "dangerous" place. Vanimo is on a penninsula and has nice beaches on both sides but when we asked about swimming we were told that in one of the bays there was a crocodile (but they hadn't seen it for a while) and in the other there were sharks. On Sunday, Derek the guy who picked us up, invited us to his friends house for seafood and drinks. We went over to John's house, a former Australian missionary. Many people came, all from either Asia or Australia. We met an Australian couple, Molly and Aaron, who were living in Vanimo. They were so surprised to meet backpackers and told us the only foreigners living in Vanimo were either missionaries, in the logging industry or expats. They invited us to stay with them and we accepted and said on tuesdaywe would move to their place. So the rest of the week we spent in Vanimo, walking around town, visiting villages and nearby beaches with Molly. Everyone in Vanimo was so friendly and it was hard to walk on the roads because everyone would offer to give us a lift. We had to wait to get our Indonesian visas and the next flight after monday was the following friday. So we ended up spending a week in Vanimo and flying on friday to Madang. In Madang we were met at the airport by our old babysitter, Elisabeth (although I did not know it at the time). We ran some errands in town and stopped along the way in Alexishafen, a mission station and then continued 2 hours up the coast to Malala. She kept telling me this is the route "daddy" took and this is what he did. Finally when we arrived at Malala we were shown our house where we were to stay and the house behind it was the house where we lived when we were there. Our house had a big window that looked right onto the bay and we could hear the waves crashing on the beach at any hour. The sand is black because of the nearby volcano. I also saw where my mom and dad taught there classes and the well my dad built. Everyone there was really nice to us and Sr. Jane Francis, a friend of the family, was so happy to see us and asked all about the family, especially Steve. One day we were taken to some of the Manam settlements (the volcano on Manam island erupted in 2004 and the people were moved to the mainland). The kids and adults were so happy to see us and everyone wanted to take pictures. Some of the little pikininis (children in pidgen) gave us coconuts and papayas as gifts. We also took a walk along the old road, just a dirt path that runs thru local villages along the coast, and everyone came out to say "apenum" (afternoon) to us. The villages are really idyllic, just like out of a movie, with palm trees, coconuts, sandy beaches, houses on stilts, naked pikininis running around. It's really something to see. After 4 days we moved to Alexishafen which is another beautiful spot on the coast just about 25km from Madang town. >From there we went to town and visited Kranket island, a beautiful island just ten minutes from town, did some shopping at the market and ate grilled fish, grilled kaukau (sweet potatoes) and bananas from the women selling them on the waterfront. From there we took a PMV, which we got at 8 am in the market, to Goroka. The PMV's drive around in circles calling out there destination until they are full and then they leave. The problem is that there are many PMV's to the same destination and they need 15 adults, children or baby's don't count, before they leave. Our PMV drove around and around the market for 2 hours before we had 16 adults and 4 children. Finally we left at 10am drove for about 20 mins stopped at a different market where everyone got out and bought what they needed for the trip. I didn't understand why they couldn't have bought it at the market in town??? The trip to Goroka, in the highlands, took almost 7 hours and most of the road is full of huge holes and is a dirt road. Hold ups on the roads are very common but luckily we didn't have that problem. In Goroka we stayed 2 days. It is a very nice town in the market with a beautiful, colorful market. The women there also loved having there pictures taken and when I showed them the photos the laughed and shook my hand and said "Tankyu tru". Antonio bought me a piece of sugarcane, for old times sake, and the women asked if I wanted her to peel it for me and of course I said "yes". So she peeled it with her teeth!!!! Then she gave it to me and of course watched while I had to suck on the sugarcane. Another women gave me one as a gift but I told her I would peel it myself. On Monday we took a PMV 4 hours to Mt. Hagen. This time we had better luck and the PMV left with only 12 adults and 5 mins after boarding. In Mt. Hagen we were picked up by another friend, Sr. Henrilena, of the family and taken to the mission station here. We were told that there was a robbery in the morning and a shooting and that the next few days the atmosphere would be quite tense due to local elections. We found this to be true. Yesterday the police closed the town down completely, no stores were open and no one was allowed to enter. But people went anyway and there was a confrontation between 7 boys and the police and the police struck out at the boys with machetes and some were injured quite badly, severing arms and legs. They were brought to the hospital at the mission station because the general hospital was closed (who would of thought). We saw many men walking to town with their machetes and slingshots. Later on in the afternoon we heard that the losers went and burnt down the oppositions homes and their was even a shoot out. Today we went to town and there was a lot of tension. We saw a big group being chased away by the police and them pushing some others into the paddy wagon. There were police on almost every corner with machine guns too. We are staying til Saturday because there is a big cultural show that is supposed to be amazing. I really hope it is worth it. You have to be really careful of your camera, wallet and money since they have a real problem with "rascals" (young men from the villages who rob people either by force or by picking your pockets). Then we will make our way back towards Indonesia and hopefully will be able to catch our flight from Jayapura on August 19th.
Overall I am very happy that I came back to PNG and it was well worth the effort. Since we still have contacts here it is alot easier for us to move around and we hardly have to pay for housing. Otherwise PNG can be pretty dangerous, expensive and not very easy to get to. All the people we have met have been extremely friendly and I hope that is the case for the next four days. When we arrive back in Bali I will post the pictures and let you know if we made it out of PNG with everything we came with.

Sulawesi, Poso to Makassar

2008-07-24T18:42:00.000+02:00

We have had a crazy last few days after leaving our peaceful little island. We went to the town of Poso and on the second day met a local girl, Hani. She called us over and invited us into her home to practice her english. After a while she invited us to stay with her in her house and to join them for dinner. At first we were a little aprehensive but after a while decided to stay the next night with them. She lent us her motorbike and took us to the beach and then around town. That night we had dinner with her whole family, parents, husband, son and friends. The next day she came to our hotel to make sure we were going stay at there house. We later all went to the beach together and they had brought food for us, like a picnic. Then we went back to the house, they gave us a whole house to ourselves, where we had our room a big sitting area which opened out onto the sea and a bathroom with a bucket shower. We changed and they took us to a friends "baptism", they are muslim so it isn't called that. Where we ate and then everyone at the party took turns taking pictures with us. We were the excitement of the party. Then they wanted us to sing Karaoke, but I didn't give them the priviledge of hearing my wonderful voice. Later that evening there was a concert, given by a local highschool band, where we went to have a tamarind tea. The singer dedicated a song to us and then asked us to join him on stage and sing with him. Again I declined. The next day they had bought us all these typical foods which they eat for breakfast. Then the whole family took us in the van, her dad is a local taxi driver, to the bus station and we said our goodbyes. I tried to offer to pay them something and they refused. They said they were just being hospitable and that we should tell other travelers that Poso is safe and the people are friendly. It was really an incredible experience.

After leaving we prepared ourselves mentally for the 22 hour bus ride in the front row. At first everything went well but when the drivers changed and the second driver took over, I thought I would lose it. He basically sat sideways and drove in the middle of the road. I really thought we were going to die. I covered my face for the next 12 hours and wished I was somewhere else. Remarkably we made it safely to Makassar at 6am.

There we rested for a few hours in a motel. We went to then internet cafe where I left my sun glasses in the downstairs bathroom. I realized almost 2 hours later and when I went back to ask if someone had turned them in, sure enough there they were. WOW these people never cease to amaze me, so honest.

That night we left at 3 am on a 4 hour flight to Jayapura. On the flight we met George, an Indonesian studying Rocket science in Miami, Florida. He is somewhat of a celebrity here since he was one of the first to receive a full scholorship to a US university. He has also filmed 2 commercials and has come back to talk to the kids and tell them the importance of studying english. He offered to take us to the city and help us do our visa stuff and in the end he offered for us to stay at his uncles house. Which was great since all the hotels were booked solid. His uncle is a very kind man, Pa Sa, with 3 little girls and his wife. They are both teachers and he speaks english really well. We sleep in a tiny room with a single bed and no AC or fan. But we are very grateful for their hospitality. So we have been here for 3 days now waiting for our PNG visa, the embassy was closed yesterday due to a PNG holiday. We will hopefully get it today or tomorrow and take public transport to the border and then walk across and try and arrange public transport on the other side.

Togean Islands, Sulawesi

2008-07-18T18:43:00.000+02:00

We have just returned from 10 days in the Togean Islands, actually island. We didn't island hop as we had planned but stayed on one island for the whole time. I couldn't imagine any of the other islands being any better and it was already hard enough for me to leave after 10 days. The 3 day trip to get to the island was a nightmare but that's what deter's other tourist from going and in the end if you stay for a while it is well worth it. The boat ride was exciting, or maybe others would say dangerous, as they pile way too many people onto a rickty boat. There are two levels, both just high enough to stand up (and the average person is shorter than me) and no seats to sit down. So everyone just lays down and the smart ones bring little plastic stools to sit. We chose to sit outside at the front of the boat, I figured if it sank I would have a better chance of swimming to shore from there. We practised our poor Indonesian, thank god for the phrase book, and the indonesians practised there enlish. They are very curious and so happy to talk to you. We are immediately surround be kids and adults saying "hello mister" and it always makes for an enjoyable trip. After 4 hours we arrived in the first islands port and had to wait til they unloaded and loaded the boat again, again with way to much weight. I of course asked if there were any life jackets on board and if I could dine at the captains table, phrases form the book, which they thought quite funny. The life jacket questions wasn't meant to be funny. After 2 hours of unloading and loading we headed another hour to the next island, where Leslie, an american from california who we had been traveling with for the last 3 days, got off. We could see the island across the way and the pier where people were sitting, I thought "wow that looks great, we will come back in a few days". As we waited to load and unload a German guy and his wife got on who were leaving the island. I asked him how his stay was and he said "incredible, I came for 4 days and stayed 4 weeks". I asked if he had ever visisted Melenge (where we were headed) and he said yes. I then asked which he thought was better and he said " this island". I immediately jumped up and yelled to Antonio "get the backpacks". I jumped off the boat and ran over to where Leslie and the guys from the Fadidirah cottages (name of hotel on the island) were getting ready to leave, and yelled "wait for us". Best decision we could have made.

We were given a bungalow on the beach with a nice porch with a hammock, tables and chairs. The inside had a big bed with a mosquito net, a headboard (very rare), a dresser and a shelf. The bathroom was outside, open air and was a bucket shower, where we were brouht fresh water 2 or 3 times daily. We had electricity after 6pm until we went to bed, usually not more than 3 hours. The price was 9 euros or 11 dollars daily per person with 3 meals a day included. When we arrived there was a swiss guy, francois, and a retired australian Tony staying there. So all together we were 5 tourists on the island. The people who worked there were very friendly and really did there best to interact and talk with you. Tony was a dive instructor and offered his services for free, a refresher diving course, all we had to do was pay 10 dollars for each tank. So the first day Francois, Leslie and Antonio and I went to a Bajo village, gypsy fisherman, who live on the water. The villages was about 2 hours away and we passed thru mangroves to get there, where I think I saw crocodile. The gypsy's homes are built on stilts and they have one walk way connecting all the houses. Once we got to the village we were immidately engulfed by children all walking next to us, touching us and trying to talk to us. We walked thru the village talking to the locals, visiting the market, stopping for a coffee in someones house and buying fresh caught tunas for our lunch. Then the children showed us there school and sang us songs. The chanted " Bule masuk Kampung", the white people have come to the village, learned from a show on Tv. We had given some money to Saiful, our guide and boatman, to buy some notebooks and pencils and after our visit on the jetty he passed them out. It was crazy. The kids were all screaming and then after receiving there books each one came over and thanked us personally. It was really an amazing experience. On the way back it started to rain really hard so we stopped at a near by island where we were given shelter in someones home and tea and coffee. That afternoon we snorkled around the island, which had some really nice coral and a good amount of fish. The next morning Tony did our refresher course and we were in the water by noon. After about an hour of swimming around I decided, which I already knew, that scuba diving was not for me and got out of the water. I wanted to try again but I really perfer to snorkel. So the next day Antonio, Leslie, Tony and I went out on the boat to a nearby reef and they went diving and I went snorkeling. The reefs here are amazing, Tony said they were world class, and although they said there weren't too many fish I was impressed. In fact we saw dolphins swimming at a distance. I had never seen coral that colorful and diverse and I was really impressed. So for the next few days we dived and snorkeled in the morning and read and studied Indonesian in the afternoon. My only complaint was that the food wasn't very varied and we were given egg at almost every meal. Not my favorite food. It rained about half the time but that wasn't too big of a deal since it was warm. The only bad thing was the mosquitos who seemed immune to the mosquit repelent, spray and coils.

We decided to come back yesterday to Poso, 6 hours by boat plus 5 by car, an arrange transport back to makassar from here. Luckily we came early enough as all the busses are full til Sunday and our plane leaves Tuesday at 3 am and it is a 24 hour bus ride. Today when we went to buy the ticket the only 2 seats left were the last 2 on a non AC bus, UUGGGHH. We thought about it and checked our options and finally went back an hour later. As we sat preparing to buy our tickets someone called and cancelled the front 2 seats for Sunday. I thought Antonio was going to kiss the woman. So we will spend an extra day here, which isn't so bad. The people are really nice and I think we are the only tourists here. About 5 years ago there was major conflict in the area and some foreigners were killed and 4 little girls beheaded. So as you can imagine tourists are weary about coming here. But now it is safe and they are super excited and happy to see tourists in there town.

On tuesday we fly to Jayapura and hopefully in the same week will get our visas for Paupa New Guinea and if we are lucky may make it over the border for July 25, my birthday. How exciting.

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi

2008-07-04T18:45:00.000+02:00

In the last week we have experienced the fascinating culture of the Tana Toraja people from central Sulawesi. They are most known for their funeral ceremonies, and now I know why. The Torajan's celebrate most of their funerals in July and August. That doesn't mean that everyone dies in those two months but means that's when they have the ceremony and burial of the deceased. When the person dies the family gets together and decides when they want to bury their loved one. So until they decide the date they mummify the body and put it in a special room in thier house with them. Some keep the body for months and others for years. They believe that until the body is buried it is still alive and the spirit is still there. They give it water and food and other offerings. The funeral ceremonies are held in July and August because it is vacation time and it is when they harvest the rice, and since they serve allot of this at the funeral they wouldn't have to buy it in the market. The ceremonies are various days long, depending on the importance of the person and how many guests will be invited. The first day is a procession day where they carry the body all thru the village and the surrounding areas. The second day the receiving day, when they receive their guests. And the third day the burial day. But if there are many guests sometimes they need more than one receiving day and they also plan other activities such as buffalo fights. The guests usually give live pigs as gifts and if they are very close they give a buffalo. This is a very expensive gift and if the buffalo is light skinned, blue eyes and with big horns it could cost as much as a car. They have open bamboo platformed houses made so that the guests can sit and watch all the activities. They are served coffee, tea and snacks by the family. Each group of guests is announced and filed in by the immediate family, who is dressed in their traditional dress, and sat in a special receiving house during which time all their gifts, mostly pigs and some buffaloes, are brought out into the open middle area and the master of ceremony announces who gave what so that the family knows exactly which pig is from which village or family. The pigs are tied on bamboo posts and the morning of the ceremony we saw pigs in the back of pickups, on the back of motorbikes, on the side of the road, in the back of cars etc. The ceremony we attended they must have been given over 100 pigs as gifts. During the ceremony, out back, they slaughter the pig by driving a knife into it's heart. It lasts all of about 1 min and there isn't much blood. Then they remove the stomach and insides and throw it whole on the fire. On a different day they slaughter the buffaloes. These they slaughter in the main area with everyone watching. There is one man and he cuts the buffaloes throat, the buffalo spins around and pretty much bleeds to death. Then they skin it and cut it into pieces. They can slaughter over 20 in one day. The meat is served to the guests during the funeral days and the rest is sold to restaurants.
Later we went and visited some of the grave areas. They bury their dead in family graves in caves, or rocks and children are buried in trees since they believe the trees and childs life is tied together and the child will grow with the tree. One of the cave graves we saw had many coffins lying around the front, the richer people hang the coffins from the top of the cave but the ropes or rock has given way and most of the coffins were broken and on the ground. You can see many skulls and bones lying around. The upper class or important people are buried high up in the cave and at the base have a wood statue that is made to look just like them.
The torajan's have houses with roofs that look like an upside down boat or to me the horns of a buffalo. The roofs are red and the house is made of wood and is built on stilts. They have replica ones that are smaller for the grain. The area is full of rice fields, coffee plantations, cacao plantations. The green rice fields are speckled with big black boulders from the nearby volcano. It is quite a site to see. We took a hired car from town to take us up to the countryside to hike thru the villages. The mini van that we hired looked like at one time it had been in a fire, then rolled down into the river to be put out and sat there until our driver fished it out and fixed the engine. It was full of mosquitoes and I wasn't quite sure how it was held together. Antonio asked if there was AC and our guide laughed and said that that car was considered in good condition and was a good car. The people here are very nice and have a great sense of humor. As we walked thru the small villages the children called to us asking for candy and the older ones saying "hello mister". They haven't learned to say misses yet.
Tomorrow we leave for a 14 hour bus ride, not to excited about that. And then another 5 the next day to a town called Ampana where we will catch a boat to the Togian Islands. There is supposed to be great snorkeling there with some interesting marine life, reef sharks, turtles etc. We will spend the next 2 weeks island hopping and looking for the perfect beach. I don't think I will access to internet until the 3rd week of July.

Gibbons Experience, Laos

2007-06-22T19:28:00.000+02:00

This is an email I wrote to the gibbons experience after doing the Waterfall experience. This is just my experience and my opinion but I thought you should be advised.

Dear Noke,

Hello. Antonio and I returned yesterday from the Waterfall experience which left on the 19th of June. We went directly to Luang Nam tha and therefor were not able to speak with you in person. We were very disappointed with the gibbons experience and I am sure that the rest of the group which did return to the office has also let you know. We were well aware of the bad conditions that we might have found, like muddy trails, leeches, long hikes etc but we were not expecting the lack of organization and lack of knowledge (due to minimal if to say no english skills) by the guides.
We started our journey out by car and were able to cross the river but due to the bad state the truck was in, it over heated, we could not make it to the main camp. So we hiked three hours to the office in the village and there we were given a baguette. Which in my opinion is very little food. No snacks no fruit as promised in the brochure we were showed. We then hiked for another 3-4 hours to Treehouse 5, where we arrived at dusk. No guide stayed to let us know where anything was. The beds were not prepared for us, the treehouse had not been cleaned, in fact the rotting fruit and meal from the last guests were still there. The bedding was piled on the floor and after about an hour we realized that it must have been left there for us. We could not find enough towels for each of us (also as promised in the brochure) , so we had to share. The towels were hanging over the banister and they were damp, so I imagine that they were the towels used by the group before us. After we showered and prepared the beds for ourselves we sat around the table wondering if anyone was going to come back and bring us dinner. When we arrived earlier at the treehouse the guides left immediately, we now know to make dinner, but never told us anything. So after a few hours of waiting we started to wonder if the left over food was actually our dinner. Finally about 9pm we were brought dinner and hot water. Needless to say we were all very upset but finally relieved to see that we were not forgotten about.
The next morning we were brought breakfast, this time with baguettes but there were only 7 and we were 8 so again we all had to share. Some of the other guides came to the treehouse and one told us that she, she had come with us in the truck, was supposed to have come the night before with us but when we arrived in the village was too tired to come that evening. I think she came to pick up the treehouse and prepare our beds but since we had already done that she just left. Six of the eight of us went on a hike in the morning which was very difficult and the guide didn't seem to really want to take us. Since the communication was so poor no one could tell us about the hike we were about to do and even the conditions of the trail. On that trek we actually saw a snake, which the guide did point our and the slaughtered it with his machete. Then we again had lunch in treehouse 5 and finally were given our first piece of fruit. We were brought 1 pineapple for the 8 of us and about 10 ranbutanes, some fried banana and some chocolate. We had communicated to our guide that after lunch we wanted to go to treehouse 1 to take advantage of the ziplines. We had been told by the group who hiked out the day we hiked in that the waterfall was too muddy to reach and one of the other foreigners working with the gibbons experience told us the same. So when we went to the kitchen to tell our guide we were ready to leave he seemed very surprised to see us and asked us twice if we wanted to walk. Again a big communication problem. We eventually did hike to treehouse 1 where the ziplines were and enjoyed the hike and the ziplines very much. We took a rest in the camp where all the workers were and saw that they had bananas and other food and we were even given one each there. We also zipped thru treehouse 1 in time to see that they, for their arrival, had been prepared fruit and the treehouse was very tidy. Seeing that made us feel very cheated. Why were we not getting the same treatment after paying the same price???? When we hiked back to the treehouse our guide had already told us how tired he was and was the first one on the last zip to go back to his camp. We arrived with dinner on the table but with no hot water. One of our group had stayed in the treehouse during the afternoon hike and had told one of the guides who came to the treehouse that we had no hot water. But even after that noone brought us hot water. Another disappointment. The next morning again we were brought breakfast but there was no fruit or other snacks to accompany it. We then hiked to the village not knowing if we would have to hike out or if the truck would be there or if we would be given lunch.
The whole time during our three days the communication was very minimal with the guides. They barely spoke english, if nothing. No one could tell us basic things like how long the hike would be, the conditions of the trails etc. No one could point things out, like what kind of bird or insect we had just seen, the fruit on a tree or even a flower. In fact the guides barely tried to converse with us and went ahead of us like we were not even there. At times I could not see anyone ahead of me on the trail and wondered if I had taken a wrong turn. The food was very poor. There was barely any meat and no eggs in our meals, I don't mind since I requested vegetarian, and other guests were left very hungry. And as there was no fruit or snacks, as promised, we could not eat anything besides what we were brought. We could not help ourselves to hot water or make any as there was no stoves. The treehouse 5 is very close to 2 huge bees nest. So you definately cannot stay there during the days as it is overrun by bees. The treehouse was not cleaned or prepared for our arrival and we had to sweep and pick up after the last group who had been there.
Overall I will not recommend the gibbons experience to other travels and I will post this email along with some pictures I took of the treehouse when we arrived on forums for travelers such as the lonelyplanet or travelfish. The gibbons experience is, in my opinion, overpriced and was definately a big disappointment.
Hopefully my email will ensure that this does not happen to others that sign up for the gibbons experience.

Myanmar

2007-06-14T19:29:00.000+02:00

Finally here goes the overview on our trip to Myanmar. First off, I think this is one of my favorite countries out of SEA. I would definately recommend it. We stayed for 24 days and any prices for guesthouses will be for two people.
We traveled from Yangon to Mandalay, Mandalay to Kyaukme and back to Mandalay, Mandalay to Bagan, Bagan to Kalaw, Kalaw to Inle Lake, Inle lake to Mandalay. The only place I really didn't enjoy was Yangon. The lonelyplanet says in some places it looks like a earthquake has hit the city and I think that is pretty accurate. The people were the least friendliest there, in my opinion, but then again it is a city of about 5 milion.

Guesthouses
We stayed at Ocean Pearl ,$15 with ac, tv, fridge and they cleaned our room, and although the room was good and they picked us up at the airport we didn't stay there on our way out of Myanmar. I just didn't think they were very friendly. Before leaving we stayed at motherland 2 and they were very friendly, gave us breakfast the morning we arrived and the morning we left (it was the best breakfast that we had in Myanmar) and took us to the airport for free. The rooom, $10 no frills, was basic but I perfered them to ocean pearl. We stayed at Royal guesthouse in a $10 and 2 nights in an $11 room. Definately ask to look at the nicer upper floor rooms. You will get a lot more for the extra $$$. The downstairs rooms were like being on a cruise ship, dark and wood interior. The have sporadic electricity which you will find all thru Myanmar. I really liked the staff and they have a pretty good breakfast, they even gave it to us to go the morning we had to leave early. They can arrange onward travel for you , for a fee, and overall they are very friendly. We rented a motorbike thru them to visit Sagaing and Mingun, we like to move about on our own. The price was more expensive than the one we rented in Kyaukme (10,000k to 6000k) and the motorbike was not in good condition. Overall I would definately reccommend them. In Kyaukme we stayed at the GH listed in the lonelyplanet, $10 bathroom inside, although there are other choices . Nelson the owner was very friendly and we enjoyed our stay although the rooms were nothing to write home about. We met a young burmese Thura (pronounce Two Raw) and did a 2 day one night motocycle trek to a near by village. I would definately reccommend him and we really had a great experience. The family where we stayed were very nice but they basically went about doing their daily activities, which was great to get a good look at how they really live. After Kyaukme we went thru Mandalay to Bagan. In Bagan we stayed at New Park, $12 AC, batroom inside, fan. We also liked the guesthouse, everything was wood and the bathroom and shower were great. We had a nice porch for sitting and they would put some beers in the fridge for us. During the time we were there we looked for a pool and ended up going there during the day for $3 ea. It was really hot and you could only visit in the morning and evening. I enjoyed Bagan, riding around at our leasure. The people selling things were not so bad, after saying "no thank you" nicely a few times they would move on. We then went on to Kalaw and stayed at Golden Kalaw $8. The rooms are a little run down but after seeing the view from the balcony we didn't look at anything else. We did a trek with KT there at the guesthouse. In the end we were 6 and paid $6 a day. I enjoyed the trek and the scenery, more that Kyaukme, but I liked the homestay with the family in the Kyaukme trek better. The food we ate during the day in the tea shop and restaurant was very little but then at night we were prepard by our guides probably the best food I ate in Myanmar. The breakfast was also very good and plentiful. From there we went on to Inle lake and stayed at Mingalar hotel, $10 a VERY nice fan room with bathroom. The staff was helpful and polite. I really enjoyed the boat ride on the trip, a highlight of our trip.

Burmese
I think Ihave already said a number of times how wonderful the burmese are, but it just won't do them justice, you have to go and find out yourself. I think that they are the most friendly and simple people I have met and they really made our trip incredible. Even though a good amount of the population lives in poverty you will not get a lot of begging. The only areas where we did experience this was the more touristy areas where we as tourist have shown the children that if they smile for a picture or even just beg they will usually be given something. In Myanmar you can easily see men, women and children doing very hard labour. Noone is excluded and everyone works just as hard as the next. If the child is too little to do hard labour then maybe they are given lighter jobs like waiting tables, cleaning or taking care of a sibling. The only traditional dress that is widely worn in Myanmar (Where we traveled) is the longyi, which is the long wrap around skirt worn by all. We didn't see too many tribes in traditional dresses like we had seen in other countries. The children's school uniforms are green pants or skirts and white shirts. And again everyone wears flip flops.

Money
1250 Kyatt (pronounce chat) = $1. At the beginning of our trip we changed 300 dollars to Kyatt. Everyday things like buses, local transport, food, drinks etc are paid in kyatt. Guesthouses and some entrance fees and train tickets were paid in dollars. If you can imagine we had to carry huge wads of money around with us. At first things sound expensive...1000 for this, 500 for that but then you realize that it's 50 cents, 70 cents etc. Between the both of us we spent $25-35a day, on the days we didn't travel or didn't have to pay an entrance fee we spent less.

Transport
Transportation is very very slow, on average 30km per hour, at best. Our first train ride from Yangon to Mandalay was 16 hours on a train with no AC and very dirty toilets. One of our seats was broken and since the train was full there was no option of changing seats, one of us had to sit in the reclining position all the time. I found the train to be very expensive for tourist, $30 each and in our case was not more comfortable than the bus, a much cheaper option. Most buses are no AC and not all are regular big buses. Many are mini buses and I mean very mini. Our first bus ride was to Kyaukme, 3500k ea, and was probably the best bus we had the whole trip. We had our own seats, reclining ones, and there was nothing under our feet, like rice sacks etc. We also had a TV and got to watch Braveheart in English. I don't know how many of the locals understood english but the little boy in front of us really liked the fight scenes, the gorier the better, and he laughed and screamed with joy everytime one came on. The bus back to Mandalay, 3200k ea, was much worse. We had people packed on everywhere and were sitting with our feet on sacs of whatever. But still at least we had our own seats. These buses are quite funny from the outside because you see the people on the inside sitting very high up and you wonder why. But after riding one you understand that there really is no floor and that everyone is sitting on sacs of something. We took a mini bus, was told it was the best option, from Mandalay to Bagan, 6500k ea plus 1000k because we bought it thru the hotel, and were in the front row where not even I had room for my legs ( another option would have been by boat, maybe the better one). It was very hot and in the area between the front row and the bus driver they pack as many people on as possible. And it seems like people travel with everything they own. You also have people sitting on top of the buses with the luggage. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse we took a mini (this time I think it was a super mini) bus from Bagan to Kalaw(8000k ea), 9hrs. The bench seats were not wide enough for the two of us, definately not made for westerners. But we had requested not to be given the front row so at least we had more leg room. The routine was the same, when the seats are filled the bring out the little colored plastic seats for the isle and when those are filled people pack on wherever they can. Just when you think noone else could possible fit on the bus they stop and pick another family up. The bus is run by the bus driver and usually one or two others who hang on in the door and collect money, call out stops, help people get their luggage on and I think prevent others from rolling out the door on a dangerous curve. The Inle lake to Yangon bus is a big bus with AC, if it works. The first 6-7hrs of the 20hr trip is very windy and the roads are very bad. Many people were throwing up on the bus and since it was supposedly an AC bus the locals didn't want to open the windows. Other than the first few hours I thought it was better than the 16hr train ride and we paid 11,000k ea, $9. Overall the bus is definately an experience and a great way to see how the locals travel. But you definately need to keep your patience and your good sense of humor. We didn't really use the pick ups which are packed with people, the local taxis, horse driven carts (in certain areas they look like stagecoaches from a Wild west movie), tractor like trucks hich are common forms of transport for the locals. We did rent bicycles in Bagan, which was a great way to see the pagodas and we did a motorcycle trek in Kyaukme which we really enjoyed.

Food
I can say I definately would not return to Myanmar for the food. I will only mention some of the dishes I like and say that the food is very cheap. In the morning we asked in our guesthouse, since breakfast is always included in the price, for a burmese breakfast. We usually recieved Mohinga a chickpea based soup with noodles. I really like it. You can get it in many places on the street for about 350-500K which is like 30-50 cents. Usually we just ate a rice or noodle dish which normally cost us less around $1 each. We did eat at the Beer stations, where you can get a local beer for about 450-500K, like 40cents. The do some pretty good BBQ food and it is relatively cheap. The only thing I didn't really like is that outside the tourist places normally the menus don't have prices and you really should ask how much things cost ahead of time. In Mandaly I was charged in the same place for exactly the same food ordered two different prices.

Vices
The burmese seem to have many. The love to chew the Betel nut. It is wrapped in a green leaf package with herbs, spices and tobacco inside. It costs about 30k, like 30cents, and they chew it like candy. One after another...chewing and spitting, chewing and spitting. They also smoke a hand rolled cigar, cheroot, which depending on the brand costs about 50k each. Some smoke cigarettes but it is more expensive. Like I mentioned earlier they have beer stations, which are usually filled with men after 5.30pm. They have many local pilsners and even a pale ale which are all pretty good. The burmese men like to drink whiskey or rum as well. Some even pour the shot of whiskey into their beer or just mix it with water. Depending on the beer station you can get a pretty good mix of locals. Like I mentioned before we found the food pretty good and reasonable.

Religion
97% are Buddhist and the rest are muslim, hindus, baptists etc. Everyday you can see Monks, nuns (women monks), novices (the young boys) walking the streets, asking for donations. I have never seen so many pagodas in my life. Many people give donations to the monks hoping that any bad they have done in their life will be forgiven. It seems like a big buisness.

Leasure
The burmese play with a small wicker ball hitting it back and forth with their feet or even over a volleyball net (sorry can't remember the name). They also seem to really like soccer.
At any hour of the day you can sit at a tea shop, where the green tea is free, order snacks, watch tv, chat or just watch the rest of the world stroll by. It's definately very affordable and a nice time out.
We had a burmese massage, which was nothing like I had every had. It was a little over and hour and cost less than $3. But I don't know if everyone would enjoy it. First they warm up your muscles by rubbing and squeezing them then the stick their fingers deep into your ears for at least a minute and pull them out creating a popping noise. Very strange for me. Then they walk all over your back and legs. They also pull, strentch and bend you into all these wierd positions and then in the end rub a menthol rub all over you. We were told this was chinese medicine and should not shower til the next day. Something about eliminating the toxins.

Fin de Vacaciones en México

2006-07-10T18:46:00.001+02:00

10 de Julio, 2006

Aqui todo va bien. Estamos terminando nuestro viaje
aquí en México. Hemos pasado el fin de semana en una
isla de 1800 habitantes y de 25km de largo por 3km de
ancho. Las calles son de arena y la gente utiliza
cochecitos de golf para transitar. Estamos comiendo
unos pescados muy buenos y bastante baratos, 4euros.
Hace dos noches hubo un accidente, una lancha embistió
otra, y se murieron 2 personas mayores y su nieta. El
pueblo esta de luto y las cosas están muy tranquilas
por aquí. Ayer fuimos a 40 min. en lancha hasta un
sitio donde se une el golfo de México con el caribe.
Allí había un montón de tiburones ballenas y delfines.
Después de observarlos desde la lancha nos tocó
bañarnos con ellos. Fue una pasada. Algunos eran tan
grandes como la lancha. Meterte en el agua con un
bicho tan grande es un poco acojonante. Pero lo
hicimos y ha sido una experiencia única. Luego a la
vuelta vimos flamencos rosas en la orilla del mar.
Hoy estamos preparándonos para ir a Isla Mujeres, la
última parada antes de coger (debo decir agarrar, aquí
coger es follar) el avión el jueves. Tengo muchas ganas de ver
la familia y los amigos de los EEUU.
Lo hemos pasado súper bien aquí en México y lo
recomendaríamos a todos.

Guatemala, Belize and back to México

2006-07-09T18:45:00.000+02:00

July 9, 2006

Well this will probably be my final communication from
Mexico. I have not been as good on writing my travel
logs in Mexico as I was in India, but that is because
I didn’t want to spend too much time in the cyber cafe
instead of being out enjoying this beautiful
country. I have been writing in English and in
Spanish so those of you whom speak both languages have
received the whole trip thru emails and those who only
speak English may be missing a few pieces, sorry. I
will do a little catch up....
We went from the ruins in Palenque, Chiapas into
Guatemala. There we spent a few days in Flores, El
Remate and a day visiting the ruins of Tical, which was
incredible. Guatemala is definitely on our list as a
country that we must come back and visit and spend
more time in. After that we spent two days on a
little little little island called Key Tabacco in
Belize. It was amazing. It was just like out of a
magazine. Clear turquoise waters and you could
snorkel right off the dock. We saw all kinds of
barracudas, stingrays (all sizes and colours), needle
fish, clown fish and many other colourful fish (which I
have no idea of their names), we also saw pelicans and
watched them fish. From there we went to Tulum where
we spent 9 days on the beach in a bungalow (pretty
rustic), but we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave any
sooner. There were hardly any tourist on the white
sandy beach and the water was incredible. The place
we stayed at was called Playa Selva (Jungle beach) and
the guy who ran it Miguel and another couple staying
there quickly became our friends. We had a great time
lazying about in the hammocks and going for walks on
the beach. We had a paella party on the 4th and on
the 5th one of the girls staying there went out and
caught 5 huge lobsters for dinner. Finally we left
this Thursday and spent a day in the city of
Valladolid shopping and seeing a fresh water cenote
(it is an under water cave where you can go swimming).
Pretty awesome. From there we took a bus to
Chiquilá, a fishing town on the golf, and caught a
ferry to Holbox Island. It’s a small island, 3km wide
and 25km long. It was hit full on by Hurricane Wilma
last year and they are still trying to get back on
their feet. But it is an amazing and relaxing place
and we have already met some nice locals. Yesterday
in the evening we saw Flamingos and more pelicans.
Tomorrow if nothing changes we will be swimming with
the whale sharks in the Caribbean by a little island
called Contoy. I will fill you in.....if we get back.
From here we will be heading for our last 2 or 3
nights to Isla Mujeres, which is right in front of
Cancun and on Thursday we catch our flight to Phoenix.
I am looking forward to seeing my parents and
spending some time in AZ.
We have really enjoyed our trip and would definitely
recommend it. I feel like we have seen a lot of
Mexico and a little taste of Guatemala and Belize. We
are already thinking about next year’s trip which may
include Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador....we’ll
see.

Guatemala, Belice y México (Español)

2006-06-28T18:43:00.001+02:00

28 de Junio, 2006

Donde empezar???? Hemos pasado por dos países,
Guatemala y Belice, y ahora estamos otra vez en
México. Pasamos 4 días en Guatemala antes de cruzar
la frontera a Belice. Guatemala es increíble. Nos ha
gustado mucho el país y la gente. Estuvimos en Flores
una noche y al principio estuvimos un poco
decepcionados con Guatemala. Flores es casi una isla
y se conecta con Santa Elena por un puente. Es muy
turística y los precios de los restaurantes y
supermercados son muy caros. No creo que un
Guatamalteco pueda pasar sus vacaciones allí. Es un
pueblo muy bonito de casitas de colores y se puede
nadar en el lago. Pero al día siguiente cogimos una
furgoneta y fuimos a 30km a un pueblo llamado El
Remate. Es un pueblo entre Flores y Tikal, un
yacimiento arqueológico muy importante de los mayas.
No hay mucho turismo, todavía, y esta en el mismo lago
que Flores pero en el otro lado. Es precioso, el
lago es azul, se puede ver el fondo y puedes ir a
nadar. Hay bungaloes y habitaciones justo delante del
lago en una calle que llega a un parque en la selva.
Tranquilidad total. Hay caballos pastando, niños
jugando fútbol, gente pescando en sus canoas de madera
y no hay ruido de coches......total paraíso. El día
siguiente fuimos a Tikal a las 7am. Llegamos antes
que nadie y tuvimos las ruinas para nosotros solos.
Son más de 16km y mil ruinas descubiertas, todas
metidas en la selva. Nada mas que llegar vimos un oso
hormiguero, luego un zorro nos cruzo el camino y en
todos los árboles había monos arañas, vimos
escarabajos gigantes y tucanes. También escuchamos
los monos aulladores y por supuesto nos comieron vivos
los mosquitos. Pero valía la peña. La zona es muy
bonita y las ruinas están bien conservadas. Después
de 5 horas nos fuimos y justo a tiempo porque empezaron
a llegar muchos turistas y empezó a llover con
muchísima fuerza. Esa tarde hicimos lo único que
había para hacer, echar una siesta y bañarnos en el
lago. El día siguiente fuimos a Belice. En la
frontera intentaron cobrarnos 10 Quetzal para salir y
por supuesto negamos pagarlo si no nos daba un recibo.
Que tacaños......son como 1,20€. Pero ya estaba bien
de tomarnos el pelo. Al final nos dejaron pasar. En
Belice cogimos un autobús para ir a Dangriga, un
pueblo pesquero, para coger el barco para ir a la isla
de Tabaco Key. Fuimos en un autobús escolar con
música Reggae y un paisaje que parecía a Jamaica.
Nunca he estado allí pero me imagino que las casas de
madera de colores, la gente negra con sus rastas y su
música seria igual. Al final llegamos al pueblo de
Dangriga y fue un choque total. Había un montón de
Beliceños en el muelle y todos eran capitanes y nos
quería llevar en su barco por un precio desorbitado.
Pero eso no fue lo peor....La mayoría olían a alcohol,
los que no estaban muy borrachos o desmayados o
vendiendo droga. Nos fuimos a un supermercado y en
frente hicimos nuestro campamento base cada uno
mirando para un lado para que no nos pudieran tomar
por sorpresa. Allí estuvimos mas de 2 horas pensando
nuestra próxima jugada. Varios vinieron
ofreciéndonos todo tipo de drogas o solo para pedirnos
dinero. Al final vino uno, más o menos normal y nos
ofreció un precio mas barato para llevarnos en su
barco con la condición que nos quedaríamos en su
resorte. Como no estaba borracho fuimos con el. Al
llegar a la isla nos dimos cuenta que todo los nervios
y el mal rato que pasamos antes mereció la pena. La
isla parecía un postal. Las aguas claras, arrecife
coral, y un montón de peces de colores. Podías cruzar
la isla en un minuto y andarla en 3 minutos. Toda la
comida estaba incluida con el alojamiento. Yo les
dije que no comía carne y comí pescado en todas las
comidas y la cocinera era muy buena. Estuvimos dos
días buceando con tubo y tomando el sol. Vimos rayas
mantas, peces payasos, agujas, barracudas etc.
También vivimos unas tormentas tropicales por la noche
que eran para asustarte. Después de ver en todos los
sitios refugios para huracanes....las tormentas en una
isla, que con un huracán débil llevaría toda la isla.
Después de dos días nos fuimos de la isla y estuvimos
viajando un día y medio hasta llegar a Tulum, Mexico.
Aquí estamos en una choza en la playa, muy rustica,
pero muy tranquila y la zona es preciosa. Las playas
son de arena blanca y agua azul y hace una temperatura
muy agradable. Hemos alquilado unas bicis para ir
al pueblo, esta a 8 km. Estaremos aquí dos días mas y
luego iremos a Isla Mujeres, también en el caribe.
Iremos contando nuestras aventuras.....

Chiapas, México

2006-06-21T18:42:00.000+02:00

June 21, 2006

I just wanted to send a quick email letting you know
what has been going on the last few days. We spent a
few days on the beach and then headed to Chiapas to
pick up two friends on the way to San Cristobal de las
Casas. SC de las Casas is a cute little town and most
of the population is indigenous. It was great to see
all the people in the local dresses. The women
carried their babies slung around on their chest tied
with a scarf. The houses and the little shops are very
colourful. We spent two days there and then headed to
Palenque. Palenque is on of the most important Mayan
archaeological sites in Mexico. The ruins are
beautifully set in the jungle. We slept in Cabins
about 2km from the ruins in the jungle. It was
awesome. We also went and saw a waterfall, called Agua Azul, and went
swimming. It was nice and refreshing,
since it is so hot and humid here. The next day we
left and went to two other Mayan ruins. We had to
take a bus to a boat on the river that divides
Guatemala and Mexico to get to the ruins. The first
ruins, Yaxchitlan, were not as spectacular but they
were more in the jungle, so we were eaten alive by
mosquitoes. I also got bit by fire ants and we saw toads, frogs, centipedes, and heard and saw howler monkeys, which funny enough sounds more like lions than monkeys.

Then we went to a smaller
ruin, Bonampak, which still has its original wall
paintings. Pretty incredible considering that it
dates back to 600 AC. We slept in a pretty rustic hut
but you could also hear the monkeys and there were
lots of creepy crawlies around. Then this morning we
got on a bus, where we had our second snake sighting
(thank god I was on the bus because it was huge). We
got back on our boat and went about 30mins up stream
to the Guatemalan border. We took a beat up bus on a
bumpy dirt road about two hours and then the last hour
on a paved road to Flores. We are now here. It is a
cute little town which is surrounded by a lake on
three sides. It is very expensive though. I am
assuming that only the international tourist can
afford this. We will be going to the ruins of Tikal
tomorrow and staying in El Remate tomorrow night. We
heard Guatemala was cheaper than México but I think
Flores is excluded.

Puerto Escondido, Guatemala, Belice (Español)

2006-06-19T18:39:00.001+02:00

19 de Junio, 2006

Aquí os mandamos un mensaje en español. Estuvimos la
semana pasada en el Pacifico en un pueblo, Puerto
Escondido. Lo pasamos muy bien. Es una zona donde
van muchos surferos buscando esa ola perfecta. Solo
había dos playas donde se podía bañar pero eran unas
calas muy bonitas. Comimos pescado, muy rico, tipico
de aquí. Después fuimos a recoger a Guti y Mamen y
seguimos todos hasta San Cristobal de las Casas,
Chiapas. Es un pueblo en las montañas con una
población de 250 mil. La mayoría son indígenas. El
pueblo era muy bonito, con todas las casas pintadas de
colores y las calles estrechas. Fuimos a un pueblo
cerca, San Juan Chamula, con 8000 habitantes. Tiene
una iglesia súper bonita y un mercado dominical.
Vimos muchos indígenas, todos vestidos con sus trajes
típicos. Los hombres llevan una especie de chaleco
largo de lana blanco atado a la cintura con un
cinturón de cuero ancho. Las mujeres llevan una falda
negra de lana que les tapa las rodillas, unas blusas
bordadas con flores y adornos de colores en el pelo.
Ayer cuando quisimos coger el Autobús hasta Palenque
nos dijeron que ya no quedaban billetes entonces
decidimos coger el transporte local, 4hrs 30min hasta
aquí. Al final no fue tan cómodo como un autobús pero
fue mejor porque estuvimos con la gente local.
Pasamos por todos los pueblos y la gente de allí subía
y bajaba. Era increíble ver las mujeres y sus trajes
tradicionales. Cada tribu es diferente. Las mujeres
llevan sus niños atados a su pecho con una manta de
colores. Algo que no hubiésemos visto en un autobús
normal. Al final llegamos a Palenque, donde hay unas
ruinas mayas, unas de las más importantes de México.
Están metidas en la selva y son las mas bonitas que
hemos visto hasta ahora. Estamos alojados en unas
cabañas metidas en la selva. Hace mucho calor y
humedad pero no hay nada mejor que dormir con el ruido
de la selva. Mañana vamos a ver unas cataratas y
pasado iremos a ver dos ruinas mayas más y luego
seguiremos hasta Guatemala. Hemos cambiado un poco la
ruta. Hemos decidido entrar en Guatemala, pasar por
Belice y volver entrar a México por el norte de
Belice.
Hasta ahora todo va muy bien y estamos pasándolo muy
bien. Hay muchas cosas por ver y todos los días
estamos haciendo algo. Os mandaríamos unas fotos de la
gente de aquí pero no se puede fotografiar a los
indígenas porque creen que les roba un poco de alma. Bueno no
se si a mi me gustaría que me hiciera fotos tampoco.

On to Puebla, Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido

2006-06-13T18:36:00.000+02:00

June 13 2006

After Mexico City we spent 3 days in Puebla, a cute
colonial town in the mountains. We ate the typical mole there but it wasn't one of our favourites. We are not really big on sauces and mole is made from chocolate and ground nuts etc. So it’s pretty rich. After that we went down south to Oaxaca, a really nice town with cobblestone streets and brightly painted buildings. The people were really nice there. We stayed for three days in the city. The first day we just bummed around the town. There is a teachers strike going on and the whole downtown was full of tents and people camping out, which made it a difficult if not impossible to see the buildings and visit any museums in the main square. But there are other beautiful areas in Oaxaca and I am glad that we went there and didn't skip it because of the strike. The next day we went to Monte Alban, ruins of pyramids. We ended up hiking up there instead of taking the tourist bus. It was a nice 4km hike to the ruins and the surrounding area is beautiful. We really liked Monte Alban. There is a lot to see and they have a nice museum. Then we hiked back down and caught the local bus back to Oaxaca. The next day we left early in the morning for a 2 day hike in the Sierra Norte.
We took a local bus at 9am about 3hrs to a town called Cuajimaloyas which is at about 3,500m. It was much cooler than Oaxaca and the town has only about 1,500
population. We met our guide there and started a 15km or 5hr hike through the forest. We ended up being 5 so it was nice to talk with other people about there
experiences. It was a good hike, a lot of up and down and with a backpack on is a little harder. We stopped about an hour from our final destination at a trout
farm and had dinner. We saw as they picked our trout
out of the river and cooked it in aluminium foil with veggies and potatoes. It was pretty good. The only thing is the guide expected us to buy his dinner and
beer. But we were told when we were getting ready to
leave that there was one trout left unpaid for...hint
hint. None of us had calculated that into the price
and so we said no and that if he would have told us
before hand then we could have all decided together. He
seemed to take it well. From there we continued on to our cabins, which were at the top
of the hill in a town called Latuvi, 1000
population. The cabins were super deluxe. We had a
hot shower, fluffy towels, a nice bed and pillows.
There is also a fireplace but it wasn’t cold enough to
light. The views are spectacular from the front
porch. We met another American Aaron who had lived
in Chiapas and was a great source of info for us and a
lot of laughs. The next morning we met our guide and
started off to Lachatao. The guide was the big
downfall of the trip. He didn’t talk to us at all and
walked about 20ft in front the whole time. He was
eager to get to the town so he could turn around and
return home. Understandable but we paid for a guide
and would have liked some kind of info about the area or
the hike. It was another 15km hike alongside a river
and through a forest which is called the haunted
forest. There is white moss hanging from the trees
and it is a little ghostly. About 4hrs later we arrived
at Lachatao. Lachatao is a beautiful little town in
the side of the mountain. It has about 800 population
but used to be one of the biggest towns in the Sierra Norte. Lachatao was
the first town and from there the locals immigrated to
other areas and created the other towns. The locals
are very proud of this and everyone will tell you the story. We
met Juan and his wife Veronica who basically run the
ecotourism there. The have a restaurant and the rent
out the cabins. They have a very nice family and we
enjoyed spending the day with them talking. They took
us to see a cave and gave us all the information that
we asked for. The cabins are no comparison to the
ones in Latuvi, in fact they are a little abandoned.
They are building new ones which were not ready when
we were there. I would have definitely liked to have
spent more time there. There is no noise and no
phones. It is a great place to do some exploring and
just relax. The next day at 5am we headed back to
Oaxaca and caught a bus at 10.30 to Puerto Escondido
on the Pacific coast. The bus was only supposed to
take 7 hrs but ended up taking about 10. The bus
driver stopped to pick every single person up on the
side of the road. He also stopped a few times to say
hi or eat something and watch TV with his friends. About 6hrs of the
drive or 100km is through the mountains on a curvy
road. It was beautiful and we were very entertained
which made the bus ride not seem so long. We had the
option to take a mini van to the coast which is faster
but in the end I am glad I didn’t. Being in a box
between two other people on those windy roads is
probably not that fun. In fact some of the kids on
our bus were vomiting. We had front row which I think
are the best seats, if you are not afraid of heights.
The bus was a 2nd class bus and people got on with
chickens and their fruits and veggies from their
crops, it was definitely a good experience. There was one
point when we went thru an area of heavy fog and
things got a little nerve racking but here we are
alive to tell. So the last few days we have been here
on the beach. Puerto Escondido is a cute little coastal town that
is very well known for surf. They call it the Mexican
pipeline and almost everyone comes here to surf or to
learn. It is low season so there are not that many
people. The first 2 nights we stayed close to the
only beach they say you can swim at, due to the
currents. But the place was very run down and our
room was like a black, humid hole in the wall. So
yesterday we changed and came down to the main area and
just decided to walk back and forth to the beach. For
about the same price we are in what seems to us like a
5 star hotel. The beach is very nice and we have
spent the last two days relaxing, reading and
swimming. We have made some friends with the locals
and at night we go out and have a few drinks with them.
We have eaten at some good restaurants and had some
great fish for pretty cheap. I am in heaven.
Tomorrow night we leave on a night bus to San
Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. We are definitely
going first class on that 12hr trip. We will be
meeting a few friends there who will be joining us for
two weeks.

México City

2006-06-01T18:35:00.000+02:00

June 1, 2006

We are still here in México City and after a very rough start
are enjoying the city. As I told you on the first day
we got cheated on the taxi but that was nothing
compared to the second day. As we were changing
hostels, we had all our backpacks with us; we were
getting on the metro when Antonio got pick pocketed.
It was quite a bit of money and we were pretty upset.
We went to the police station which was another crazy
situation. The police definitely have that corrupt
look about them and there is no formality what so
ever, they don’t even use a holster for their gun, which they keep tucked in the back of their pants.
The next day on our bus trip to Teotihuacan, the
pyramids, a older guy almost died on us. Antonio and
I were the only ones to help as he fell to the ground
and started spitting up blood. Finally some other
guys on the bus helped us get him into a seat and I
pounded on his back. He came to and I gave him my
bottle of water and he seemed to recover. And for
once in 24 hrs I stopped thinking about us getting
robbed. Then last night, on a lighter note, we went
to see a mural of Diego Rivera and we were told there
was a concert going on and we could go in for free but
couldn’t leave until it was over, an hour later. So we
went in and the orchestra was set up in front of the
mural, ´´Suenos de una tarde..¨and it was really
beautiful until the orchestra started to play. I now
understand why it was free and why we could not leave.
It was horrible. Antonio and I couldn’t help but
laugh as we both thought....nothing worse can happen
to us on the rest of this trip. We of course left
early.
Anyway I have gotten over all of the past events and
look forward to a day with no major events.
Apart from all that, Mexico City is a beautiful city.
The buildings are half sunken into the ground and they
are colonial and beautiful. There are a lot of parks
and green areas. There is so much to see as far as
museums and art galleries etc. It is a dirty city
but nothing compared to India. There is over 18mil
population and the city is huge. It is not as cheap
as Asia but Antonio and I can get buy on about 50
euros a day.
There are many street performers and vendors but the
most interesting are the ones that get on the metro or
buses. They get on at a stop and get off at the next.
Some have guitars and sing; others have a radio
strapped to their chests and offer the cd that you
are hearing. Some sell books and calculators etc.
But all thank you before and after for listening and
any donation appreciated. There is no rudeness.
We have had some really good food, although very spicy. They
also have the chopped up fruit they sell on the
streets like in Asia, which I love.
So today we will visit some museums and go to Coyoacan
where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived and visit the
area. Then tomorrow we are off on a VIP bus to
Puebla. I will let you know just how VIP it is.

México City

2006-05-29T18:33:00.000+02:00

May 29, 2006

(Más abajo en Español)

From Mexico City. We finally arrived after a great
weekend in San Francisco. The wedding went great and
the bride was beautiful.
We arrived this morning on a red eye flight. We got
ripped off at the airport, first thing. Which made me
realize I have to be on guard. But I have gotten over
that already. We have been bumming around the city
and took a tour bus to get an idea of what was to be
seen. Mexico city is huge and I doubt that in 4 days
we will be able to see everything. The weather is in
the high 70´s and it is raining now in the evening and
has cooled off. Today everything was closed as far as
museums etc.. so tomorrow we will start the cultural
part of the trip. Today we are just going to eat
tacos and drink some mexican cerveza.

Esta mañana hemos llegado al aeropuerto de DF. Nos
engañaron con el taxi nada mas llegar. Tenemos que
andar más listos.....estábamos bastante cansados y no
volverá a pasar. Hoy todos los museos etc estaban
cerrados, lunes es el día de descanso lo que nos
obligo hacer un tour gastronomico por la ciudad.
Estamos aprendiendo, de la manera más dura, cual es la
salsa más picante (porque todas son picantes). Hace
buen tiempo durante el día y por la tarde refresca y
llueve un poco. Mañana empezaremos nuestro tour
cultural pero hasta entonces vamos a por unas
cervecitas y unos taquitos de carnitas.

Back in Delhi, India

2005-07-16T19:14:00.000+02:00

July 16, 2005

We are again now here in Dirty Delhi. And although I
welcome the change, from little town to big city, this
place is DISGUSTING, although I don't know if I
should expect any thing different. Here the worst
part is that the guesthouse's standard of clean is....
that they have none. So we are staying in a shit hole
as well. It's been raining everyday so the
temperatures are much cooler, thank god, but the
streets are full of water and shit. It's much harder
to watch where you are stepping while trying not to
get hit by a rickshaw, bike or step in cow shit. The
rickshaw driver's here really try to cheat you and
will charge you twice or three times as much for a
ride. Yesterday the rickshaw driver said he had a
meter, which is rare, and he put it on when we got in.
He said it would cost us around 100rs anyway, but we
insisted on the meter. While he was driving and
talking to us I watched him put his hand under the seat
to unplug the meter. The meter went off and I
complained. He then hit the meter and said oh, it's
not working. We got out of the rickshaw and walked
back to where he had picked us up. Now I am sitting
in the internet cafe and some Indian guy is belching
away I am just waiting for some one to rip ass. Last
night in our guesthouse, they use incense here to
cover the smells, they were burning some and it seemed
like right in our room. I covered my mouth but
Antonio was sleeping and about 10mins later got up to
throw up. I think the overwhelming smell made him
sick. I think since we are at the end of our trip we
are tolerating less and less. I am looking forward to
getting home. Although I have enjoyed the experience
I would only recommend it for the strong stomached.
Today some friends arrive and I am grateful that some
one else can make decisions and haggle over prices.
Antonio likes to let me do most of it, and it wears
me out. Tomorrow, if we can get a train, we will go
to Varanasi. I have looked into Yoga classes there as
well. I am excited about moving around more and
changing scenes. It is more interesting and also
makes the days pass by quicker.
So I think I have ragged enough about this place.

Udaipur, Bundi India

2005-07-13T19:13:00.000+02:00

13 de Julio, 2005

Ayer nos fuimos de nuestro oasis en el desierto a un
pueblo pequeño, Bundi. Los últimos días en Udaipur
hicimos todo lo turístico que no habíamos hecho en la
semana que estuvimos allí. Durante el día vimos dos
toros en la calle pelearse y todo el mundo corriendo,
OLE! Los toros se llevaron todo por delante
incluyendo motos y puestos de fruta. Al final se
metieron en una tienda de 4m2 y al parecer la
destrozaron por completo. Al final salio un toro y el
otro se quedo dentro (para pagar los desperfectos).
Por la noche nos hicimos unos amigos Indios en la
trastienda de una tienda de licores, que es donde se
hacen los mejores amigos. Nos llevaron por el pueblo
por la noche en sus motos enseñándonos sitios
indios. El día siguiente cogimos un autobús y
luego un tren hasta Bundi. Creo que éramos los únicos que
compraron billetes pero no tuvimos asientos de todas
las formas. Nos metimos a empujones todos, como 30,
en un compartimiento de 5m2. Nosotros tuvimos suerte y
cogimos una esquina y nos sentamos encima de las
mochilas durante 4 horas, pero había otros que
tuvieron que quedarse de pie. Parece que a los indios
no les importa que les traten como animales.
Bundi es un pueblo muy pequeño pero siguen cabiendo
todas las vacas, jabalís, monos, perros, burros y
demás animalitos. El domingo llegan los
refuerzos, unos amigos españoles, con el vino lo que nos dará un soplo de aire
fresco.

Pushkar, India (Español)

2005-06-25T19:12:00.000+02:00

25 de Junio, 2005

Por fin un mensaje en espanol.
Ahora estamos en Pushkar, en Rajasthan. Es un pueblo
muy pequeño al borde de un lago. Hay un montón de
"Ghats" donde los Indios se bañan, lavan la ropa,
asean, y se cepillan los dientes. Es un sitio sagrado
entonces no hay drogas, alcohol, carne, ni huevos.
Pero siempre hay drogas en India. Hay galletas
"especiales", bebidas de yogurt, lassi's, también
"especiales". Todo con un poco de hashish añadido.
No me sorprende porque aquí todo el mundo fuma hashish,
turistas e indios.
Nos hemos quedado en un Guesthouse donde tiene una
piscina y hemos hecho unos amigos Chilenos. Nuestro
Guesthouse es como estar en un Cortijito. Desde
nuestro balcón se ve una montaña, un templo, pavos
reales, jabalíes, vacas (por supuesto), perros y demás
animalillos que no vemos por la noche. Al final aquí
tampoco hay curso de Yoga porque es temporada baja y
todos los Guru's han ido al norte. Vaya! Nos
quedaremos aquí disfrutando de la piscina un par de
días mas y luego iremos a Bundi. Es una ciudad nada
turística y por lo visto con mucho encanto.

Manali, India

2005-06-22T19:11:00.000+02:00

June 22, 2005

We are leaving Manali tonight on a 10hr bus ride to
Shimla, which is further south and about 6hrs from
Delhi. I am going to miss the view from our balcony
at the guesthouse. We rented the motorbike this week
and went exploring to the mountains, 4000m, and to the
valley. The roads are incredible and the scenery like
no other. The only bad things are the Indian drivers
and the toxic exhaust that EVERY car gives off, which are always

honking and trying to pass you even on the
curves or if they have to stop 500m ahead. They also
try to squeeze two cars thru a one lane area and then
get stuck and end up arguing about who is going to
back up. The exhaust fumes are overwhelming and it is
sad to be in this beautiful mountain area and have to
breathe toxic fumes.
The scenery here is amazing and we have been able to
really discover the area on the motorbike. We were
constantly driving next to the Beas River and there
are many hanging bridges and we even saw people doing
rafting. We drove thru pine tree forests and little
villages with their colourful houses. The women spread
the rice stalks across the roads so that when the cars
pass over the rice pops out, and there is always the ever
present mountains making for an incredible back drop.
We have also seen our fair share of animals, even
though I thought there were only monkeys and cows. In
the last few days we have seen many donkeys, horses
(wild or pony like), yak's, vultures, a rex rabbit,
dogs and surprisingly only one cat and even few snake charmer's

have come to our area of the town.
They usually have a few cobras and one big snake.
Although I didn't want to get to close I did see some
of the show from the restaurant terrace. I have also
seen some men walking around the market area with big
boas slung around their bodies. Another funny thing
we saw was the "double decker bus", not the one we are
used too but more like when the bus is full people
pile on the top of the bus with the luggage.
So tonight we will begin our journey south and stay
only a few days in Shimla and then hopefully catch an
overnight bus to Rishikesh, north east of Delhi in
Uttaranchal. In Rishikesh I am hoping to do about a
week long course in yoga. After we will be heading to
the Rajasthan region, even though everyone says "no,
don't go, it is to hot". We only have vacation in the
summer time so we will have to bare the heat.
So far everything is going really well and we have met
some really nice people. I cannot complain about the
Indian people they have been very nice and friendly.

Manali, India

2005-06-13T19:10:00.000+02:00

June 13, 2005

Hello from Manali,
First off I am feeling much better. I should have
gone to the pharmacy before, not wait for a week. But
I am on a treatment and am feeling good.
Manali is awesome. The scenery here is beautiful. We
are in the valley at 2050 meters and with mountains
all around us. There are waterfalls everywhere which
run into the Beas River here. The view from our
Guesthouse is incredible. The town is very green,
pine trees and a river dividing the town. We are
staying in the old part of the town which is more
picturesque and quieter. There is of course your share
of monkeys and cows. But what would India be without
that. We rented a motorbike today, a Royal Enfield
and tomorrow are going to a near town with our new
Indian friend.

Nueva Delhi, India

2005-06-04T19:09:00.000+02:00

04 de Junio 2005

Aquí estamos en la India, Nueva Delhi. Este no esta
tan mal. Aquí hace mucho calor, pero es un calor seco
y nada que no hemos visto ya en Arizona. También hay
mucho caos de coches, vacas en la calle, monos en los
tejados e Indios por todos las partes. La comida es
muy especiada pero nuestros estómagos lo aguantan por
ahora. Creo que lo esperábamos mucho peor pero hasta
ahora bien. Seguiremos esperando lo peor y ojala no
venga. Esta noche cogemos un tren al norte hasta el
pie de los Himalayas donde vive el Dalai Lama. El
tren dura 9 hrs y luego hay que coger un autobús de 3
hrs. Seguiremos transmitiendo....

Vietnam

2004-06-12T19:12:00.001+02:00

Our trip is going great. We were in Bangkok for a few days getting our visas for Vietnam. It was great to be back in South East Asia. I forgot how much I loved the food, especially the fresh fruit. On the fourth we flew to Hanoi and hung out in the city for 3 days. I don't know if I can describe this city. I'd have to send a audio tape along with a nose for you to get a good picture. There are 2mil. motorbikes for a 3 1/2 mil. population. I don't think anyone here has a drivers license. The streets are marked but noone follows any of the traffic signals. It is an adventure just to try and cross the street. The first day we sheilded ourselves behind a Vietnamese pregnant women while dodging traffic. Figured if she could make it we could too. The vietnamese are not as nice and honest as the Thai's but things here are soooo cheap that you don't think about whether they scam you out of 20 extra cents. We went up North on the border of China to Sapa and rented a russian motorbike, a minsk. It was a lemon but it was a great experience. There were lots of hill tribes and green and lots of marihuana plants. Since they are not allowed to sell the opium I think they've switched to Marihuana.
--- We just got back from a trip to Halong Bay where we spent 3 days 2 nights sleeping on a boat, kayaking, swimming. Now we are back in hanoi and going south tonight to Hue on a 13 hour train trip. We have been go, go, go. But now we are hoping to relax a few days, wash our clothes, and go visit some beaches.