Bri & Jo's excellent adventure 2006/72oct07Dear All Here´s our final missive. Thank goodness for that I hear you cry! PERU - Puno / Lake Titcaca We visited the Uros floating islands, made of reeds. There are around 40 of them, all inhabited, but we did feel like trapped tourists whilst they tried to sell us their wares. Cusco / Machu Picchu Cusco, the capital of the Aztec empire, is a lovely place. Fantastic architecture and beautiful plazas set against a mountainous backdrop. You now know what happened once we reached Machu Picchu. Thank you for all your messages. The journey there was fantastic too. Incredible scenery, fascinating Inca ruins, super food, good weather and a great group of people. Quite an entourage really; 14 tourists, 22 porters and 2 guides. Fortunately neither of us suffered from altitude sickness. Arequipa Another beautiful town, much of which is made from white volcanic rock. Having found the Inca Trail quite easy we decided to give the 5825m El Misti volcano a try. We had to carry all our own kit on this one including tent, sleeping bag, mattress, water, etc. - another kettle of fish altogether. We completed day 1 from 3200m to 4500m without problems. Up at 1am (yes, 1am) three of us plus guide and a German group set out to reach the summit by sunrise. Unfortunately the weather hadn´t read the script for our last major adventure. The Germans had all turned back by 3am. We continued over sand, shale, rocks, boulders and snow but were advised to turn back at 4.30am (5200m) due to gale force winds and freezing temperatures. Bitterly disappointing (sorry!). BRAZIL - Rio de Janeiro Once again American Airlines (by far the worst we´ve used) screwed up our plans and cut our stay to only 4 days. A fantastic setting for a city and for us to finish off. We found Jesus atop the Corcovado mountain and a few goddesses on Copacabana Beach! And that´s it. Our year of fun all over. You´d expect our list of places to visit to have diminished considerably, but we´ve heard about so many more, it´s longer than ever! We´ll just have to do it again someday. Hope to see you soon Bri & Jo 21sep07 Dear All A quick note to let you know Jo and I got engaged at Machu Picchu, Peru on 19 September. After four fantastic days trekking the Inca Trail we weren´t at our most radiant, rather pungeant, but that´s been the norm over the past twelve months! Bri 9sep07 Dear All MEXICO We enjoyed Mexico very much. Despite warnings everywhere about crime and smog in Mexico City we found culture, entertainment, beautiful architecture and helpful people upon our arrival and throughout our stay. We saw plenty of Mayan, Toltec and Aztec ruins. From the sheer scale of Teotihuacan to the beautiful jungle setting of Palenque which took us back to Ta Prohm in Cambodia. Our favouite street food was corn on the cob with chilli and lime juice. We chilled out at an excellent hostal overlooking the square in the laid back town of Merida. Each morning we listened to the police band from our balcony whilst supping proper coffee. On to idyllic Tulum via the ruins of Uxmal and Chitchen Itza. The softest white sand and the smallest cabana ever! We weren´t long in Playa del Carmen which was package holiday hell. TRINIDAD Unfortunately we brought a friend with us from Mexico who confined us to close proximity to the loo for the duration of our stay! We did venture out and sample a fresh chilled coconut and see Brian Lara´s home. Back in cricket mad India, Brian Lara became my second name. CHILE We found Santiago to be a dirty, polluted place with little to offer, but a fantastic snowcapped Andean backdrop. In La Serena we went stargazing. It´s the home of some of the world´s largest observatories with 330 perfectly clear nights a year. We picked one of the other 10%!! The remote border town of San Pedro de Atacama was our favourite place, real wild west stuff. We stayed in the adobe built ´House of the Rising Sun´ and enjoyed BBQ´s and singing around the campfire each evening. 90p for a litre of very drinkable Chilean red helped move things along nicely! Jo had her first random meeting with a friend here too. BOLIVIA An amazing 3 days in a 4x4 through some of the driest land on earth. Our first day took us up to 4880m and we spent the night in an unheated hut at -15°C. As neither of us had sleeping bags, we wore virtually everything we owned! Multi-coloured lakes, pink flamingoes, steaming geysers, Dali landscapes and dazzling white salt flats were just some of the highlights. Our second night was in an hotel made entirely from salt, including the beds, tables and chairs. We broke down twice which gave me the opportunity to learn the Spanish for "flat tyre" and "frozen radiator"!!! We arrived in Uyuni and Potosi at festival time. Lots of dancing, sparkly costumes, brass bands and llama and alpaca meat to keep you going. In Sucre, the legal capital, we made a bargain purchase of 50 oranges for 42p due to a slight communication error! Our vitamin C levels are sky high!! My Spanish improved greatly at the police station in Cochabamba when I had to report my bag stolen. It seems to happen to everyone who visits South America, but I have every confidence in the legal system here! Jo enjoyed La Paz for its cheap shopping. My highlight was mountain biking down "the world´s most dangerous road". It´s a gravel track wide enough for one truck and drops 3600m in 64km. We´re now in Peru, beside Lake Titicaca having completed our last land border crossing without drama. Only 3 weeks left! Take care Bri & Jo See Virtual Tours of New Zealand 31jul07Dear All Long time since our last missive. Here´s what we´ve been up to. NEW ZEALAND What a beautiful country. Our favourite without a doubt. We drove around like gypsies in a converted van decorated with fish and a shark. Cooking dinner with one gas ring, a saucepan and a frying pan at our disposal called for military planning to avoid cold food. Making a cuppa took half an hour! The scenery, especially the south island, is amazing and with our own transport we woke up in completely isolated areas next to lakes with snowcapped mountains as a backdrop - stunning. We had an emotional re-union with Jo´s parents on my birthday and are now experts on the carpet quality in many of New Zealands better hotel rooms! Well worth it for the hot showers and cooked breakfasts in the morning. The hospitality we received and generosity of people we met was overwhelming. We were invited for dinner and to stay on four occasions, allowed to treat the homes as our own and let ourselves out. Sadly it´s something you just can´t imagine happening in England. Activity-wise we went a bit overboard - whale and dolphin watching, snowboarding, beer tasting (twice!), glacier walks, jetboating, hot springs, cruising the fjords and of course watching the Lions rugby tour. We saw 3 games in all, including 2 tests. A fantastic atmosphere despite the results. Having breakfast with them and cheering them off from the hotel in Wellington was a highlight. FIJI We soon slipped into Fiji-time on our small island. Six days on the beach was not enough. We met the chief of the local village, partook in some traditional singing and dancing which now encompasses the hokey-cokey and the Bula dance (like the Macarena!!) and took tea at four every afternoon. The most exciting moment saw an English lad stung by a sting ray and boated round to the islands hospital (hut!) after our cook had sucked the poison from his foot! LA & LAS VEGAS A quote from Jo´s dad "If you can´t say anything nice, don´t say anything at all". That´s LA covered then! Vegas was everything you imagine it to be and more. Like Blackpool on acid. We won the princely sum of $44 on the slot machines. Our highlight was flying into the Grand Canyon by helicopter and having a champagne lunch on the canyon floor - it really is incredible. Take care Bri & Jo See Virtual Tours of Australia 1jun07Dear All We've had a very comfortable past four weeks being spoilt by parents and friends. Chauffeur driven by my dad all the way down the east coast, and super hospitality in Sydney and in Melbourne. A big thank you once again. Cairns & Cape Tribulation We met up with my folks and lazed by the pool before enjoying an excellent meal (with wine!!!) and retiring to a comfy double bed with en suite. It may seem normal to you, but this felt like the height of luxury to us! We picked up the camper van the following morning and headed north to Cape Tribulation via Four Mile Beach and the kite surfing which looks wicked fun. Cape Trib is beautiful - the rain forest meets the ocean here. Inland next, to the lava tubes of Undara, a 190 million year old volcano. Townsville We came here to do a 3-day live-aboard diving trip on the Barrier Reef and a wreck called the SS Yongala. We had a fantastic time and were really lucky to dive the Yongala as it had only been diveable seven times in the past month due to bad weather. We saw the biggest fish ever including snakes, turtles, rays, and "Vee Dub", a huge Queensland Grouper, who really is not far off the size of a VW Beetle! Jo was so excited, she nearly had a heart attack!! To top it off we saw dolphins on the way back to port. Airlie Beach / Whitsundays / Noosa A day on a proper sailing boat across the crystal blue ocean once sailed by Captain Cook. We had our own island for snorkelling and lunch before I sailed us home (expertly of course!). Continuing the water sport overload, we took a surfing lesson in Noosa. We both stood up and turned by the end of the 2hrs, which was all we had time for unfortunately. We then raced down the coast spending the odd day here and there. Brisbane - dinner of steak and wine (wow - more real food!!!), Byron Bay, Manly & Bondi Beaches - watching the surfers. Sydney & Melbourne Before my parents left we took a trip around the harbour to see all the major touristy stuff - opera house, bridge etc. Mike and Ren, our excellent hosts, took us to a rugby match and to the beautiful Blue Mountains. We chilled out and met up with friends we've met elsewhere around the globe the rest of the time. More first class accommodation in Melbourne with our friends Ellie and Claire. They were excellent tour guides and did a super job of showing us their beautiful city. It was strange but nice to be part of family life again. We're now in Christchurch, New Zealand which is already starting the build up to the Lions rugby tour. It's a serious business over here and promises to be an excellent excuse to go to the pub! Take care all Bri & Jo 1may07 Dear All, Guess where we are now? No more crime to report, although the prices feel like daylight robbery. Here's our last month or so's activity. Malaysia - After Penang we headed to the Perhentian Islands for a 4 day stay. 8 days later we left having done 8 dives and our Advanced Open Water diving. Fantastic, idyllic tropical islands, we left reluctantly. Excitement included a wreck dive and seeing our divemaster attacked by a titan triggerfish. Jo's convinced she saw a turtle too. We spent a couple of days in the east meets west mixture of Kuala Lumpur before heading to.... Singapore - Nice to be somewhere clean with no smell of sewage at last. Shopping - after much deliberation we bought two cameras - a simple one and one for Jo's arty shots. We found it a little like Hong Kong but without the dramatic setting and the atmosphere that lends. Some great modern architecture. The theatres on the bay make a stunning complex. See Virtual Tours of Singapore Australia - South West - We picked the hostel from hell in Perth. It felt like being back in halls at uni - filthy kitchen, rooms looking like a bomb had hit them, music on all night etc. We felt old. Despite this, we liked the city. It's very clean, in a great setting by the Swan River and has excellent sports facilities as has everywhere. No wonder they beat us too often! We hired a car (which doubled as our bedroom) and drove around the southwest. Brilliant coastline, surf, sunsets, BIG landscape in every respect. We saw our first kangaroos and emus. Jo did some wine tasting but feels she still needs to do more to become an expert!!! We climbed a 240ft karri tree on iron pegs bored into the trunk with no safety net - impressive view out over the forest canopy. Greens pool near Denmark would make a brilliant outdoor water polo venue. Australia - The Red Centre Uluru (Ayers Rock) really does change colour at sunset. An Aboriginal guide told us the stories and beliefs associated with different sites. The following day we went to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) which are nearby, bigger and actually have more Aboriginal significance. In Alice Springs we saw first hand what has happened to some of the displaced Aborigines. They hang around drinking in the parks and streets, no jobs, no homes. It's sad to see. See Virtual Tours of Uluru & Yulara Australia - Top End Darwin hasn't excited us but we've just been on an adventure trail to Kakadu National Park where we saw more Aboriginal rock art up to 20 000 years old, crocs, dingos, wallabies and loads of birds. We swam in warm rock pools and beneath fresh water falls. Tomorrow we fly to Cairns to begin our drive south with my parents. Should be interesting! Take care Bri & Jo 25mar07 Dear All, So much has happened in the past 6 or so weeks. Lots good, some bad, a little ugly. VIETNAM Hanoi - plenty of lying, deceitful con artists there. Fortunately we weren't conned despite many attempts. The weather was crap too. Dull and rainy, a bit like England at this time of year. We both saw a dead body for the first time at Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. A weird place and strange to revere a man so much and ignore his dying wish to be cremated. Tai chi performed to music by pensioners at 6am by the lake was not quite what we expected. At least they were moving their joints. Ha Long Bay - over 3000 stunning limestone islands shrouded in mist. We took a little boat into some caves and felt we were in another James Bond scene. Sapa - beautiful scenery in the far north. We, and 2 Aussie friends, met and had dinner with a bonkers Hmong tribe lady and her family. Mouldy crust rice bread, boiled rice, green veg (morning glory), rice wine, tea. The following day we got lost in the mountain mists with two Dutch friends. We ended up cutting our way through dense bamboo jungle, sliding down sheer hillsides and climbing down waterfalls to find our way home. All good fun now we're out of it! LAOS Vientiane - what must be the calmest capital in the world. We had money and stinky t-shirts stolen from our hotel room which spoilt it a little. Dinner served by a transvestite whilst watching a couple of hundred people doing aerobics on the bank of the Mekong was an experience! Vang Vieng - fantastic limestone scenery, stunning orange/pink sunsets and very chilled. We could have stayed for much longer tubing down the river, caving, walking. We got properly drunk and went to a disco for the first time in 5 months. Luang Prabang - by the Mekong again (it's massive), nice coffee shops, good curry, cheap night market for textiles and food. 6hr boat trip turned into 10 when we broke down then ran out of fuel. Bokeo National Park - 130ft up in a tree house in the jungle, ace! We stayed with Willy the black gibbon and travelled from tree to tree via zip wire. We spent 3 days as tourists and worked an extra 2 mending steps and clearing bamboo. Waking up to the sounds of the jungle and the endangered black gibbons calling was unforgetable. THAILAND Chiang Mai & Pai - Jo was properly ill. This climaxed after she ate her own green curry having been on a Thai cookery course! Pai was beautiful, garlic fields, bamboo huts, restaurant beside a babbling brook, tree lined mountains in the background. Bangkok - More shopping. How many pairs of jeans does a girl need? The answer is currently five!!! We feasted on the excellent street food one last time. Jo had her rucksack broken into on the bus south to Malaysia despite it being padlocked. We are waiting to see what her credit card has bought. Apart from that, souvenirs and things of sentimental value went. We've also just found out that we've lost all our photos from Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia. Can anyone we've met in this time help us out? We hope our bad luck streak is at an end as we approach Malaysia and Singapore and fly onto Aus in about a fortnight. Bri & Jo 11feb07 Dear all We came overland to Cambodia. Our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere in typical Cambodian fashion and we all stood around getting covered in red dust while it was mended. It could have been a hellish seven hour journey but everyone was on good form and we met some mad Aussie girls with whom we spent the next few days at Angkor Wat, the biggest Cambodian tourist attraction. They are the temples where Tomb Raider was filmed and very impressive. In the capital, Phnom Penh, we visited the very sombre S-21 museum. The Khmer Rouge held, tortured and killed political prisoners here and it was grim. Jo felt nauseous throughout. We saw the endangered fresh water dolphins in the Mekong near Kratie further north before headed to the wild east in a pickup to see 'real' Cambodia. There really was nothing there! Lovely people though, and excellent food. I tried the local culinary delight of deep fried spiders in Skuon. Quite nice, amazingly. Jo passed on that one! We had a few days on the south coast, which is pretty and still relatively unspoilt by tourism, before leaving for Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam. Mad traffic, even worse than Cambodia! The junctions are like watching a motorcycle display team! Crossing the road is interesting. You just step off the curb and walk across slowly hoping everyone will miss you. Fortunately, so far, they have done! We visited a Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is a Vietnamese religion which borrows ideology from other religions and, amongst others, regards French author Victor Hugo as a saint! The temple was painted in psychadelic colours with drawings of an all seeing eye everywhere. As you would expect there's plenty about the 'American War'. Cu Chi tunnels were an incredible display of ingenuity with three levels burrowing as deep as thirty feet underground. There's plenty of anti-American propaganda. We took a three day motorbike tour of the beautiful Central Highlands and were shown hills bombed by Agent Orange and napalm. We were shown lots of local crafts and spent our entire time with our riders. This including trying rice wine with mole blood! Mmm! We've just been diving again and thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards, Jo went for a massage and hair cut which took 20 minutes in total. 15 minutes was for the massage, but then it only cost a pound! We are very used to having "you", "motorbike", "you buy?", or is it "you bi?" shouted at us!!! You name it, we've been offered it, weed, sex, opium...... Landmines of Cambodia and south Vietnamese traffic survived, we'll see what the north and Laos throw at us. We might finally be able to use the warm jackets we bought way back in Sri Lanka. Happy Chinese New Year! Bri & Jo 29dec06 Dear All Firstly thank you for all your emails, texts, calls to check we're ok. Here's what we've been up to since India in mid November: Sri Lanka - We were chauffeur driven around Sri Lanka for 10 days - a tough life! We covered so much ground and saw a large proportion of the island and its ancient ruined cities. They're amazing because they cover such vast areas and haven't been touched for 1000 years. Some of the thinking and engineering skills are right up there with the best the rest of the world has to offer. Naturally, we drank plenty of Ceylon tea, particularly up in the mountains where we stayed in an old colonial residence. An elephant safari and visiting the elephant orphanage, where we saw over 60 bathing in the river, were other highlights. Jo got very excited by the gems and gem mining areas too!! We met some bonkers Aussies in one hotel and will hopefully meet up with them in Sydney for a locals perspective. Sagara, our chauffeur took us to his family home on the final day. We ate his father's super home cooking and received very friendly and generous hospitality. We found the Sri Lankans to be like this throughout. A packed schedule, always on the move, but great fun. Hong Kong - Amazingly our first stay in a Youth Hostel. Being Hong Kong it had remote control air-con as standard!! Technology is everywhere - everyone seems to have a mobile or MP3 player or both. A trip round HK Island by tram to get our bearings and up the Peak Tram to look out over the neon glow in the evening. We broke up the high rise city life with a walk across the picturesque Lamma Island. It's a shame they've built a massive power station on one side which dominates the landscape and is a rather strange sight from the beach! Our final day was in Kowloon checking out the markets - jade, flowers, fish, birds, electronics, clothes, power tools, everything is there! With a tight budget, we weren't able to make the most of the Soho restaurants and bars but really enjoyed this cosmopolitan city. Thailand so far, Bangkok - Pretty lazy really!! We hung out around the backpackers' Mecca of Khao San Road for nearly a week eating great street food. Despite saying we'd buy things on our way through in a couple of months, we soon found our backpacks full. Dirt cheap designer clothes, DVDs, CDs, fake ID, driving licences, degrees, you can get it all here! We took a boat trip around the canals and once again found ourselves feeling like we were in a James Bond film!! - Or perhaps that was just me! By chance our visit coincided with the King's birthday celebrations - concert in the park, Thai boxing, free food, fireworks. We had the life frightened out of us in the morning when we walked past the park just as they were starting the 21 gun salute - we thought a bomb had gone off!!! Kanchanaburi - The River Kwai bridge is here. A lot of sobering sights including several museums, cemetries, the railway and Hellfire Pass. We learned a lot about WW2 in this part of the world. We also visited the most amazing 7 tier waterfalls at Erawan and swam in the clear blue waters while small fish nibbled our ankles. We also swam in the River Kwai and hope we don't now have worms! Jo gave me my first DIY haircut with a pair of nailscissors whilst bobbing up and down on our rafthouse! - No cuts and quite presentable, another career perhaps! Ranong - We came here purely to renew our visas with a visit to Myanmar. The most farcicle arrangement. Having left Thai customs, we chartered a small boat across the river. We didn't even need to set foot in Myanmar but did so for a photo while our man took our passports, paid the $10 and got us stamped in and out of Myanmar inside 5 minutes! Job done. Koh Samui (Ko Samui) - A couple of days in the north on a quieter beach. We were picked up whilst walking away from the ferry with nowhere to stay. We recognised two Dutch guys in the back of the Pick Up and jumped in. The muddy, rutted track to the beach huts had us worried for a while but once there we enjoyed some great food before heading out. Ko Pha Ngan (Koh Phangan)- Our Christmas break. A real house with fridge and CD player! It's great to be able to keep food without the ants getting to it and play our own music (bought in Bangkok). Our first three days were spent gaining our PADI Open Water Diving certificates. We then celebrated watching the sunset and drinking G&T on the balcony. We'd saved the gin for two weeks from duty free. In the day we sunbathe between the pool at the expensive resort and the sea which has an amazing variety of fish. We eat fantastic Thai food at the family run restaurant only 50 yards away in the evening. We're on the move to Cambodia on 2 January. 24dec06 Dear All Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!! Thanks for all your emails. Sorry I can't reply to them all but please keep them coming. It's good to hear what's going on outside our little travellers bubble! We're staying put in Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand until the new year. I'll let you know what we've been up to next time. Bri 8dec06 Hi guys Sorry you've not had updates. Until now I've not been able to access my email but have now solved problem and will keep you posted on our adventures. Bri 16nov06 Dear All, We are nearly done in India now. Here’s what we’ve been up to: Mumbai – Flew in and it was drizzling (!) as we drove through shanty town after shanty town to our hotel. Later, as we walked around the south of the city we saw some terrible conditions… dirty & disease riddled and some terrible suffering. Delhi – a crazy city with shouting, hassling touts everywhere and it seems the rickshaws are driven by frustrated racing drivers. We stayed in the backpackers bazaar area and visited the Red Fort and Qtab Minar. Agra – the Taj Mahal is amazing and worth the trip alone. Photos really don’t do it justice. We also visited another fort – there are forts and temples everywhere in India. Varanasi – The Ganges is a Holy river but terribly polluted in places. Watching the funeral ghats was an experience and we have learnt a great deal from the people about their religion and beliefs which is fascinating. Shimia – After a week of hectic travels on the train we took time out in this Himalayan hill station. We arrived via the Toy Train which winds a tortuous path up the mountainside. It’s where the British Raj ran the government from during the hot summer months. It’s a wonderfully relaxing place and the perfect antidote. Amritsar – a quick visit to the Golden Temple and that’s about it. The mozzies got us here during the night so I hope the malaria tablets are working! Jaipur – The pink city thought the traffic and pollution are taking over. Another fort as usual was impressive. Lots of hassle from sellers so we were glad to leave. Jaisalmer – a lovely place with much of the town inside the living fort. It was as if the huge fort had risen out of the ground like a sandcastle. We took a camel day safari through the desert and ate dinner under the stars on the dunes. Jodhpur – The blue city with another huge fort – the largest and most impressive of them all and the best lassis (yoghurty drink). We bought some stunning textiles and spices and it was great to be able to chat to the people without hassle. Udaipur – meant to be India’s Venice but the lake surrounding the palace has dried up. I’m sure it ‘s beautiful and the people are friendly not pushy. This is where they filmed James Bond’s Octopussy which is screened every day all over the place. Goa – we’ve just finished a two week beach break here which has been lovely. The seafood is excellent and dirt cheap. India has rattled our senses... smell, taste, sight & hearing especially! But it’s been a wonderful experience and we’ve learnt a lot about the people and culture. We’re off to Sri Lanka later this week. Will keep you posted. Take care, Bri 10oct06 Hello All, We’re now at the end of our stay in Dubai. Off to Mumbai tonight. We’ve been to the racetrack of course, walked along the private beaches at the famous Jumeira Beach Hotel and Burj El Arab hotel (the one on TV shaped like a sail), visited the souks (markets), which have everything from gold and spices to textiles and electrical goods. Just a brief note as we have to check our hotel for the first night in India. Bri 28sep06 Dear friends and business colleagues, Please excuse the blanket email. In October I will embark on a year of travelling. Time marches on, so I am grabbing this opportunity before comfortable hotels become a must when choosing accommodation! I don't want to bore you with updates if you're not interested so if you would like to hear from me please email my webmail address and I will keep you posted. To my racing and paint industry colleagues, thank you for your support. I wish you all a successful twelve months, and please don't forget I may need some work this time next year! To friends, I hope I've seen you recently. I know I'm missing a few weddings (sorry), but if you fancy a stag do (or just a holiday) further afield, perhaps we can meet up so let me know! Kind regards Brian |