Goooooood morning Vietnam – Hanoi, Vietnam
Jump to the full entry & travel map Hanoi, Vietnam We made the short flight from Vientiane to Hanoi…about one and a half hours. We had already decided to stay at the Elegance hotel 4 in Hanoi after reading great reviews on tripadvisor.com and they arranged a car to pick us up from the airport. We found our driver and headed out of the airport…..the hour journey to the hotel was an eyeopener for me….the Vietnamese are crazy drivers, scooters outnumber cars by ten to one, and they all drive like they are the only ones on the road….everyone honks their horn continuously and I had to cover my eyes so many times I lost count….how we didn’t hit someone was a miracle
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Goooooood morning Vietnam – Hanoi, Vietnam
Jump to the full entry & travel map Puerto Montt, CL.09, Chile I left Parral 4 days ago and a bus headed south to Puerto Montt. The journey started early in the morning at 8:00am, the sky dark with residue of night. For miles I come in and out of consciousness, waking only for brief seconds, to find that I was in a new city. Eliana has decided to be my companion on this trek to new adventures and possibilities. After the incident of my over sleeping on the bus, I am not allowed to travel alone anymore. She probably thinks I will oversleep again and wake up in Antarctica. I can just see me lost, walking around Antarctica with my black hooded coat. The headlines would read, “Scientist discover new breed of penguin in Antarctica. Subject is a friendly female, but refuses to eat raw fish. She prefers it deep fried in Maize (cornmeal), Picante (hot sauce) with something called Lite Bread. More information is discovered everyday about the peculiar and entertaining species.” It begins to rain and watch hundreds of rain drops dance on my window. The Chilean Landscape pass by changing from urban to rural farmland. Miles of trees brilliant and green; leaves heavy with rain, brick red earth is evidence of the fertility and life. Even on a rainy day, against a somber sky the air is brimming with the glare of opportunity. I sit in contented anticipation letting the day unfold in its own time. Fourteen hours later we arrive and find the hotel ( Hotel Don Luis) where I will be staying. It is very modern and best of all it has central heating and ice and cold of the north melts away like a dream. The next day was sunny and clear, and Eliana, Karen, Lisa, Fransisco (the other teachers that will be teaching with me in Puerto Montt) and I decide to explore the city. We walk toward the little town of Angelmo. I street was lined with Merchants selling everything from jewelry, and socks. We continue to walk sandwiched by the traffic crammed street on our right and the ocean on our left. We are greeted by a lady that asked if we wanted to take a 30 minute boat ride around the island. For only $2,000 pesos ($4 USD) it was worth the time and the money. We set sail in a tiny little boat raggedy motorboat. The smell of the ocean and the sound of seagulls made the not a mere ride around an island, but a High Sea Adventure. The captain of the small vessel was a spry jovial old barnacle that moved about the boat effortlessly, rocking the boat repeatedly giving all the passengers a stir. She rows the boat out to deep water and for a second I thought she was going to row us around the island. I thought, “If this lady can row us around the island in 30 minutes then she is one tough old bird.’’ Before the thought could get out of my head she starts the engine and I breathed a sigh of relief.
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Puerto Montt – Puerto Montt, CL.09, Chile
Jump to the full entry & travel map Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico I am here to clear up Cabo’s reputation of drunken college towns-maybe that is true…but not all of Cabo should be convey that way. Putting forth 12 dollars we took a water taxi what is call lovers beach-again you will be dissapointed if your intention is to seek romance on this beach. My attempt to ask our taxi driver why the name Lovers Beach-but with my kindergarden spanish ability my question got lost in translation, and all he said was…there is magic, people return 9 months later…the boat laugh, then we distracted by the colorful and very hungry fishes underneath the clear bottom boat.
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A misnomer – Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico
Jump to the full entry & travel map Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep After a pretty uncomfortable night we decided that we were going to change hotels. We took a quick walk around the corner and stumbled across the Lao Plaza…looked pretty flash so went back to our guesthouse, packed up and made a quick getaway. As we were walking to the new hotel we again bumped into the American couple (Alex and Allyson) had a brief chat and then made our way to our new hotel.
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Moving on to a better hotel….Still in Vientiane – Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Jump to the full entry & travel map Mazatlan, Pacific Coast, Mexico The coastline of Mazatlan is amazing. Jagged rocks massively enclave the the shorelines. Unlike the sand from back home, the sand here is white beautifully match with the green and blue tint of the ocean. Just like back home, you have youngster skating on the pavement, runners pounding the road with hair en-clasped back and music in the ears. Euphoric lovers cascade the sand, hands in hands professing eternal notions-no guessing, no doubt. If I didn’t know, I would have guess this is Santa Monica, CA. Rich in it history-yet one can tell that 99 percent of everything in Mazatlan are created for tourists. We walked to the golden zone, and stepped into various gift stores-in one i saw a little boy about nine carving a wooden toy car. I have never seen a kid so focus, so talented…if given the right opportunity what an extraordinary man he would become. I love traveling because of this-it put things in perspective. It allow you learning opportunities, it digs deep, confront you with uncomfortable feelings, and make you sit with it. Even amidst my sad disposition there is something about the boy that touched me in a place that is so personal…like i have known him all my life?
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tourists catering – Mazatlan, Pacific Coast, Mexico
Jump to the full entry & travel map Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India Individuals around the world have always desired to live in healthier lifestyles by staying in good health and spirit. However, staying fit in today’s fast paced world is a challenge for many people who have careers and families to take care of because of which they are unable to avoid gaining a few pounds as it is natural. Yet, their passion and desire to stay robust and fit has not weakened.
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Proactol – Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Jump to the full entry & travel map Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep We made the most of the pool at our hotel on our second day in Vang Vieng…topping up the tan and relaxing. We were going to go on a trip to sit in a rubber ring and float down the Mekong River for a few hours, but we decided against it….the thought of being in the chocolate dirty river for more than a minute put us off …. so we just chilled instead
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Second day in Vang Vieng and then onto Vientiane – Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Jump to the full entry & travel map Toronto, Ontario, Canada Hullo Well, after 6 weeks of wandering around Eastern Canada I made it back to Montreal. I arrived on Friday afternoon and Kim (the chick I met at Cape Breton Island) picked me up, then we picked up her 3 surviving Grandparents (her grandfather is a bright 93 year old) and we went to Kim’s parents’ place for a traditional Friday evening Jewish meal – really good. Nice family and I enjoyed it (they seemed to like me too – go figure).
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Ontario (or Onterrible as the Easterners call it) – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jump to the full entry & travel map Ndaku, Fiji Bula Everyone, The start of a Fiji Gap Year! “Welcome to Paradise” is the standard greeting by Air Pacific’s cheery onboard crew as your plane descends into Nadi International Airport.The team landed safe and sound in the beautiful Fiji Islands and made their way along the coral coast. With Fijian pop music (Fijian’s love their cheese!) crackling from the stereo, and taking in the sights of the beautiful Coral Coast, the team are headed for Wadalice bridge, where they jumped into outboard motor boats for a short transfer to Caqalai.
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Think Pacific July 09 Expedition Arrives in Fiji! – Ndaku, Fiji
Jump to the full entry & travel map Buenos Aires, Capital Federal District, Argentina The big news here in BA is that the first democratically elected president after the Dirty War, Raul Alfonsin, died last night in his home on Avenida Santa Fe, in Recoleta, after a long battle with lung cancer. What makes this particularly interesting is that my friends and I were walking along Santa Fe last night, surprised to see a big crowd outside a posh apartment building, with TV crews and cameras everywhere in sight and traffic blocked off. I don´t know any of his accomplishments during his term as president, but it was strange and cool to be a witness to this piece of Argentine history…
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Ciao, BA – Buenos Aires, Capital Federal District, Argentina
Jump to the full entry & travel map New Orleans, Louisiana, United States 14 July 2009 We arrived at the Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans, LA at 2030 hours after a greuling 27 hour trip from Bangkok. Scott and Monique met us in the airport baggage claim area. We recovered our baggage then Monique drove us to their home, where we chated for a few minutes then we went to bed for some much needed rest. Note: The date remains 14 July 2009 since we crossed the international date line causing the loss of a day
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Return to USA – New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Jump to the full entry & travel map Oiba, Santander, Colombia 21st July 2009 Hotel oiba, oiba, Colombia (20,000 pesos) Cool and damp San Gil – oiba (56 kms) Today we decided to have an easy day, apart from the 5.30 start that is. It’s all uphill to Bogota, albeit at a slightly less frenetic pace than the last few mountains we’ve had to climb. So we are back in the mountains again and the guy running the hotel keeps reminding me of this every time I ask for a key to our room, in other words you don’t need one here ‘en Sierra’. The ride today was a bit of a stroll really, but anticipating scorching hot weather, which is what we’ve had for the past week, we were out of the trap at 5.30 FAR too early for any human being. needless to say, the scorching hot weather didn’t appear, it’s cool enough for me to be wearing a fleece and it looks like more rain, hey ho, hopefully it will rain itself out before tomorrow morning.
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Not Reservoir Dogs but Running Dogs – Oiba, Santander, Colombia
Jump to the full entry & travel map Barbosa, Santander, Colombia 22nd July 2009 Hotel Kiosko, Barbosa, Colombia (22,000) warm oiba – Barbosa (70 kms) Today was an up and down day, no surprises there then. The weather held out and even got quite hot at one point, so T shirts were the order of the day. We found porridge yesterday, hurrah, so we bought a small packet just to try it out. We’re hopeful we can find more of it
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The chicken holiday camp – Barbosa, Santander, Colombia
Jump to the full entry & travel map Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland Hi to all….A sunny warm day greeted me when I woke up…After a leisurely breakfst spent the day walking Dublin…Up O’Connell St., over to Temple Bar and a stop in at the Clarence (upscale hotel owned by U2)…more time on Grafon St., leisurely lunch at Davey Byrnes pub (figures prominently in James Joyces’s Ulysses)…a quick visit to the Ireland Naitional Musuem…meander back to the hotel for a nap….A nice dinner at a nearby pub…A couple of Guiness to wrap up the day and…I think I’ve got the rhythym of this place! The town is cranked for the U2 shows over the weekend…For one thing it will bring much needed business to their tourism industry…Every pub, evey person says the same thing..Getting devastated by the economy…Lots of closed up shops and pubs around…Makes me very thankful of how insulated Victoria is from the worst of the worldwide recession…We have no idea! Tomorrow the U2 frenzy begins…Zootop (uber fans nickname) gatherings are arranged all over town, From certain vantage points in the city the spire of the stage can be seen in the north Dublin skyline…Towering over the highest of the stands in the 85,000 seat plus stadium….Friday will see special editions of the daily newspapers…the band is shceduled to arrive in town Friday morning…and, well it really is something else again!…. After a full day of touring about it’s time for sleep (my hotel is just past teh bow fo the ship)…So long for now…another post tomorrow….Get ready for lots of U2 talk! Stephen
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It;s A Beautiful Day… – Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Jump to the full entry & travel map Montevideo, Uruguay Woke up today in another country. Took another overnight bus – this time from Retiro in BA to Montevideo, Uruguay. The challenge at Retiro was something else that will be described here soon in more detail. The most eventful part of the bus ride was when we stopped all of a sudden and wondered why. It turns out that we were at the border, and the bus attendant collected all of our passports to take to the customs/immigration people (sounds kind of sketchy now that I write this, but at the time, I had just woken up from sleep and didn´t realize exactly what was going on). He returned a few minutes later with all our passports in hand, and new stamps in them…and then I fell back asleep. Uruguay is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America, sandwiched in between Argentina and Brazil. Like its larger neighbours, the country has a rich history in fútbol and was the first to win the World Cup. The capital, Montevideo, is like a much smaller version of Buenos Aires (with its own uniqueness), one that is quieter and more relaxed, on the other side of the Rio de la Plata… We´re staying in the Ciudad Vieja , or Old City, surrounded by ocean on three sides. It’s just under a half hour bus ride from the bus terminal. Most of the city’s sites are within walkable distance, the closest being the port, the Museo del Carnaval , and Mercado del Puerto , a market where you can get tons of meat grilled in front of you..
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Another day, another country – Montevideo, Uruguay
Jump to the full entry & travel map Istanbul, Turkey Having passed through the airport at Istanbul a couple of times previously, kind of wet my appetite to explore the place a little more. Living relatively close these days, I decided to take advantage of the cheap fares and make a weekend of it, and meet a long lost friend…Darcy there for some fun. The highlights were definately the Bosphorus river cruise with Belly dancers and a day trip to the little islands with their own beaches and great restaurants and markets
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Weekend escape to Turkey – Istanbul, Turkey
Jump to the full entry & travel map Debenham, England, United Kingdom This evening, I am sporting a fetching Goth look after getting black paint all over my hands and then washing it off with white spirit, leaving only the rims of my fingernails in black. Fun times, people. Things I have learnt here: – Getting a yellow fever jab in one arm and a typhoid jab in the other and then lifting 40kg suspension springs repeatedly is a Bad Idea
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Tired but still loving it – Debenham, England, United Kingdom
Jump to the full entry & travel map New York City, New York, United States Long day walking around manhattan, we’re staying west on 20th St between 7 & 8, so we thought today we’d do the sightseeing above us. Empire State, Rockerfeller, Chrysler, Central Park etc. Holy fuck we’ve walked miles and miles today, I never thought it was possible to get lost inside central park but we managed it! To think you’re in the middle of one of the world’s major cities yet you can’t hear a sound in some parts….amazing
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First Day… – New York City, New York, United States
Jump to the full entry & travel map Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand In Rotorua, i wanted to experience some Maori culture, thermal energy and some more sport. Check! First of all, the town itself constantly has this sulphur smell (rotten egg), that comes and goes in strength, due to all the volcanic and thermal activity in the area. You actually kind of get used to it. It’s quite a tourist town due to the cultural and thermal attractions. I have decided that it is great to travel in the low season, there are less peeps, easy to get accomodation (otherwise planning would be a must as it would be chalkered), prices lower, and you just have more space which i love.
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Rambling in Rotorua. – Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
Mona Morales-Schildt Ventana range 1960s Mona Morales-Schildt was initially trained at the Stockholm College of Art, Craft and Design. In 1935 she joined the Gustavsberg company as an assistant to the designer Wilhelm Kage. In 1938 she moved to the Finnish ceramics company Arabia, where she stayed until the start of the Second World War.
