Once You've Gone South East Asian, You'll Never Go Caucasian

Sunday morning. Wellington is wet and grey this morning. My friend Steff seems to have taken the last few days sunshine back to Oz with her.

But it would take a lot more than the weather to dampen my spirits today! There's nothing better than facing into another week at work knowing that you've made the absolute most of your weekend. And that's what we did!

On Friday evening, I skipped off work early (perk of being The Manager ) and raced back home to gather up a few bits and pieces into a bag. Simon, my flatmate, arrived home early too and said that he would drive me out to the airport which was great! Saved me having to trudge into town and find an over-priced airport shuttle. My flight was only an hour to Wellington and when I landed at 9:30pm Steff was aiting for me in the arrivals hall! It was great to see her again. We headed out of the airport in search of a bus into town and ended up getting a lift from a baggage handler called Ray who was on his lunchbreak and ran us into the city out of the goodness of his heart! THANKS RAY! I dumped my stuff and we didnt waste any time hitting the town. Friday was Steff's birthday so we started proceedings with some cocktails and outrageously expensive red wine! lol. (Tip: never let the waitress pick the wine for you!) Then we hit the bubbly and it turned into a great night, hopping from bar to bar in Wellington's hio COurtenay Place. We met lots of great people and found a couple of obliging Irish men to abuse. The photos speak for themselves!! ROFL!!

When I finally crawled into my bunkbed at 6 in the morning it was bright outside. Ugh. Wait, Im supposed to be living a detox lifestyle in NZ...? Arranged to meet steff at 2pm and crashed out for a few hours. That afternoon, we were both a bit wasted and thought "Hmmm..wouldnt a facial be lovely right about now?" So we tramped the streets of Welly in search of beauty therapy but none was to be found, and instead we found a coffee bar and sat on our asses for a couple of hours writing ridiculous postcards and solving the world's problems. Cinema seemed a good way to put down the evening, and we went along to The Embassy, probably the nicest cinema I have ever been in. I could happily have hung out in the ladies bathroom for the rest of the wknd. The movie was excellent, "Water", GO and see it soon.

It wasnt long before our minds turned towards food yet again, and Steff knew this great Malaysian restaurant that she had been to 3 yrs ago. The food was amazing and I had something called Mangolassi - bascially a non-alcoholic cocktail with mangos and other delicious things. YUM! We emerged hours later stuffed and unable to walk for the weight in our tummies! Ugh. Overdid it .....again!! Back to the hostel for a little rest before heading out. We went to a bar called Matterhorn and happened to walk in on a live gig with a band called Big Egg. Perfect. Live music, comfy leather couch, a few "quiet" drinks. Just what we needed. the bad were great and had a fantastic sound. Barry White meets rap music meets funk or soul or something. The whole bar was grooving and the atmosphere\ was deadly!

Three oclock saw us wandering back towards the hostel for Steff to catch her shuttle to the airport. Both of us had a great wknd and vowed to do it all again soon! Hopefully, Ill be catching up with her again before she goes back to the Northern Hemisphere.

And so, its back to Auckland for me tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 5:30a.m. I have to head straight to work when I land. UGH!

Pining for the Good Life

It~s coming to the end of my time in Argentina, I~m very sorry to say. I~m writing this on the triple borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in a little woodsy town called Puerto Iguazu. I arrived here 2 days ago after a long 22hr bus journey from Buenos Aires. Immediately on arrival, despite the sunny skies and soaring temperatures, I began to feel acute loneliness for Buenos Aires and, particularly, for the friends I made there.

Those 3 weeks in B.A. have been among my favourite in all my time in South America. It~s funny how attached you can become to relative strangers. It~s one of the sadder aspects of being on the move. You constantly meet these amazingly interesting people with whom you just click, people you dont seem to meet in your bubble back at home, but because you happen to be going in different directions, have different plans, you go your seperate ways. Of course, emails are exhanged and promises made, but the very nature of travel is moving on, meeting new people, seeing new places...and you tend to forget about the promises. It happens everyone. The people I met in B.A, the people who became my band of friends for nearly a month, were some of the funniest, most interesting people Ive met in SOuth America, and if I manage to stay in touch with even just one of them, I will be happy.

My Welsh roommate, Ciaran, and I hit it off from Day 1. In fact, he has been my favourite roommate of my entire trip. Sometimes, you just meet people with whom you dont have to try at all, and Ciaran was one of those people. It helped that we both had the same ridiculous sense of humour and I will definitely be swinging by the south of Wales on my way home.

Nico and Anthony, the closest match to Bill & TEd that Ive ever seen!, were the life and soul of our group. Ive never laughed so much in all my life as I have around those two. Anthony was one of those people who, when he started to tell a story, managed to paint a total picture for everyone by describing every little detail. One of the Top 5 Moments in BA is his story about this nutter called Chris who was in his class at school who once picked up a barking jack russell and just threw him over a fence! Nico was my drum´n´bass buddy and I have some great memories of our nights out around the city - a very unique guy who reminds me a lot of an old friend.

Next up was Andy, a really sound guy from Westmeath, who moved into our dorm. Andy and I became really good friends and had lots of ¨lying in bed¨ chats. Andrew and Evelyn´s Day of Culture is my favourite memory of Andy! We set out one day, frazzled from a week of heavy dancing and partying, in search of some soul satisfaction. Inititally, we had great plans - museums, churches, various murals, etc. We thought we´d go for a ¨spot of tea¨ to get us kickstarted for our mission, and decided to check out Cafe Tortoni (BA´s oldest cafe), but ended up having a massive afternoon tea, after which we couldnt physically stand up, so it seemed appropriate to go the whole hog and order a bottle of champagne! A very giggly, silly afternoon was had! Needless to say, the Day of Culture never really got under way! Going to be meeting up with him in Auckland, NZ which Im hugely looking forward to.

Every day in Buenos Aires was exciting. You never knew when you got up in the ¨morning¨ (2pm onwards ) who you~d be having dinner with that night or where you might end up. Like New York, it is a city bursting at the seams, full of possibilities. There´s never an excuse to be bored in BA! Ive never partied so hard. Its funny because I thought I had grown out of clubbing...or at least I had at home...but I´d forgotten how much I enjoyed it, especially drum n bass. We had some ammmaaazing nights dancing!

And then, there were the restaurants!! Oh god, in Buenos Aires you can grow fat happily. If anyone ever needs a recommendation for eating in BA, you know where to find me!!

Favourite moments were going hat shopping with Nico and Andy, dinner and a tango show with a big group from the hostel, Anthony doing my make-up for a night out , going to th zoo with Ciaran, getting kicked out of an Indian restaurant! (not our fault!), our last night together, and of course Tuesday nights in Bahrain!

Life is somewhat quieter after B.A. We all happened to leave around the same time and go our seperate ways. Ive been spending the last few days relaxing in the tropical weather of Iguazu. Up here near the jungle its stickily hot, but it~s great to feel the sun~s rays on my body again.

Yesterday, I visited Iguazu Falls with my roommate Belinda and her boyfriend Ollie (an Ozzie couple). Iguazu Falls are spectacular, even though right now the water levels are the lowest in 9 years!

Legend has it that the falls were created when a young warrior named Caroba incurred the wrath of a forest god by escaping downriver in a canoe with a young girl named Naipur, with whom the god had become infatuated. Enraged, the god caused the riverbed to collapse in front of the lovers. Naipur was turned into a rock at the base of the falls, and Caroba into a tree which overlooks the river.

Im not wild about the hostel here - its more like a hotel. Its like a shopping center or something - big and white with lots of lights. The staff arent friendly and theres a weird vibe about the place. Having a good laugh hanging out with Belinda though....she´s a really interesting girl who has been a tour guide in Vietnam and Cambodia for the last 2 years, so she has a lot of good stories!

PLanning on moving on to Rio in the next day or two, which seems like the perfect place to finish this great adventure in South America!

Roommates from Hell

Finally got my ass in gear and left Cordoba. I stayed a little longer than I had planned, so it was time to go anyway, but additionally I may have ended up murdering some Germans if I hadnt. For the second half of my stay in Cordoba I had the pleasure of sharing with two of the most crazy, inconsiderate girls on the planet!! Now, everyone expects a certain amount of disruption in a dorm-room situation. You cant be too anal about it if you are woken up in the middle of the night. People do have to make some noise coming in and getting ready for bed. and let´s face it, you dont really have anything pressing to do the next day! BUT THESE GIRLS WERE UNREAL!!!!

Every night, they would crash into the room at some ungodly hour, turn on the light, always hammered drunk, fall over everything (including stuff that wasnt even in their way!) and spend at least an hour talking and laughing before finally collapsing into their beds. One of our roommates, an American guy, totally lost it with them one night and stormed out of the room, banging the door behind him.

The last night there was the straw that broke the camel´s back, so to speak. This time, it was my turn to come back at 7 in the morning, having been out clubbing with some friends. When I got back to the hostel, the dorm-room door was locked, which was really strange as we hadnt even been given keys for it....so I knocked..and knocked..and knocked....NADA. I went downstairs to see if the guy at the reception had another key...of course, he didnt. So, he came up and THUMPED...and THUMPED....and then he just got mad and starting shouting at them. Eventually, we heard a various array of sounds from within, including a loud thud followed by a stream of curses in German. Obviously, one of them had fallen out of the top bunk trying to get down! An intense battle began from inside with the stiff lock and it took a couple of minutes before the door finally opened. I was greeted with an expression I wouldnt have thought possible for a human being. The key was thrust at the night receptionist and the beast returned to its bed all the while muttering and clicking. I made my way to my bed as best Ias I could in the gloom, eyes slowl adjusting to the dark. I slowly realised that they had not oe but two guys in the room with us, and one of these fine specimens had decided to crash out on my bed, and was snoring splendidly! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Oh, the joys of being a backpacker!

My Knight in Shining Beetlecrushers & An Illegal Border Crossing

Well, ít´s been an EVENTFUL few days! Right now, I´m back in Mendoza, Argentina feeling like I need a holiday from my holiday. I travelled here with Ringo, an English guy, two English girls called Sarah and Rachel, and Karen from DOnegal. On SUnday night, we made our way to the bus terminal in Santiago to reserve our tickets to Mendoza for the following day. On the way back, we were walking along the main street, the Alameda, deep in chat about world religions or something when suddenly my bag (which is more of a satchel really) was yanked violently. I had it around my body underneath my jacket and so the mugger nearly put my shoulder out with the force at which he pulled. The pretty sturdy strap gave way and he disappeared into a huge crowd of people while I looked after him completely helpless. Out of nowhere, this guy with a punk hairstyle, covered in studs, and wearing an enormous pair of boots, came running up to me and asked me in which direction the mugger ran. He took off running. I stood there not really knowing what was happening...thinking maybe they were together...realising slowly that my passport, my recently replaced credit card, bus ticket, money, MP3 player were all in the bag. I felt ill.

Two minutes later, the guy emerged from the crowd holding my bag. He had managed to get it back with EVERYTHING still in it. He didnt seem to want any thanks, but I hugged him so hard. Ihave never been so grateful to anyone in my life! Looking at this guy, you would expect him to be the one on the street to rob you. He was amazing, and now looking back I feel that I shoudl have made some gesture of thanks to him, but it all happened so suddenly. It was very surreal for all of us. Anyway, he left and, as we stood there recovering from the shock of what had just happened, the thief reappeared and grabbed the bag from my hands!!!!! This time, everyone around was ready for him, and he didnt manage to get enough of a grip on it to get away.

We took off up the Alameda at speed, back to the safety of the hostel. That night, I lay in bed thinking about what had happened, how fast it happened, the feelings of those moments. I remember the punk guy´s face so clearly, how glad he seemed to be able to help. I hope that something really wonderful happens for him. I wish I had done something more by way of thanks. It´s a great feeling when someone, especially a complete stranger, goes out of their way to help someone else.

So, the next day we got the midday bus to Mendoza. Not long into the journey, Ringo realised that he didnt have his tourist visa slip. Without this, you cant leave Chile. Panic ensued. Being the only one of us with any bit of Spanish, (yes, I am proud to say, I can now make myself understood without looking like some sort of tree-top creature, pointing and hooting) I explained the situation to the bus steward who said that, unfortunately, Ringo would have to turn back to Santiago. We looked out at the heavy snow and the white peaks of the Andes - the prospect of abandonding poor Ringo at the frontier in the snow and ice wasnt a nice one. As we sat, comfort-munching cookies and discussing RIngos plight, the steward calledthe two of us to the back of the bus. In hushed tones, he said that if we were prepared to pay he could bribe the Argentinian border officials. None of us had any CHilean, Argentinian or American dollars. All Ringo had was about $100 Australian dollars. HE told us to wait for him at the border check and he would tell us how much it was going to cost. He was very anxious to stress that none of this money was for himself...only for the border police. But later that night, when the bus finally arrived in Mendoza, he looked well pleased with himself..so Im sure he took a nice chunk of it for himsef...understandable really!

We got to the border and we negotiated a price with him. He wanted $100US, but in the end agreed to accept the Australian money (which worked out to about $80US...). He took Ringo under his wing while I went through the "proper channels". Ten minutes later, Ringo had his exit stamp and was grinning like a Cheshire cat! Success! The snow was heavy at the border and it was COLD! As we huddled over polystyrene cups of coffee and waited for our bags to be searched, we spotted a big Mercedes partially buried in the snow.

Anyway, so I´m back in Mendoza. It´s marginally warmer than Santiago and much sunnier. There are leaves falling everywhere, which I love. Myself and Karen are going horse-riding tomorrow, and then we are heading off to Cordoba for a few days, while Ringo, Rachel and Sarah go to Buenos Aires. I´m looking forward to Cordoba...apparently, there is a lot of Jesuit architecture there and a lot to see and do.

Held Hostage in La Paz

Well, I finally let Cuzco after a long stint there! Two of the girls from the hostal insisted on accompanying me out to the bus station to see me off, which was very nice of them. Boarded the coach (which looked nothing like its fancy picture on the companys brochure, by the way!) at 10:00p.m. and settled down for the llllong journey to Puno. Fell asleep almost immediately but then KING KONG came on and lucky me was sitting right next to the speaker!! Aghghghghghg. Thank GOD for MP3 players - I stuck my earphones in for the next 8 hrs!

Arrived in Puno at 6a.m. and stumbled into the station looking for coffee or anything containing a stimulant to keep me going for the next few hours while I waited for my connection to Copacobana. Watched the sun rise over Lake Titicaca as I tried to chew a dried up chocolate pancake and chatted with a Norwegian girl whom i{d met on the bus. The journey to the Bolivian border took a couple of hours. Once we reached the frontier we all had to get off the bus, get our exit stamp from Peru and then walk across the border to Bolivian Immigration. It was good to be out in the fresh air for a few minutes and I finally started to wake up a bit. All back on the bus again for the short ride to Copacobana. Once we arrived, I sussed out a lovely hostal which cost me only $5 for the night. For that, I had a lovely spacious room with own bathroom and breakfast! Bargain. Was very disappointed to find that YET AGAIN there was no hot water.

Instead of climbing into bed, I decided to push on through the tiredness and booked a tour for 1:30 to visit Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. The lake is a spectacular sapphire blue colour, and that particualr day, was very calm and serene. As the boat bobbed back and forth on the waves, the lake winked and flashed in the sun, and a tremendous sense of calm came over my frazzled body. At that altitude, you feel as if you could almost stretch out your arm and pluck the sun out of the sky. I, of course, forgot (having spent almost 3 weeks indoors sick) how easy it is to get sunburnt at this height and slowly fried in the afternoon sun. Isla del Sol was beautiful, although we just had an hour to explore. It, and nearby Isla de Luna, are believed to be the birthplace of the Incan civilization and there are many lovely ruins to see there. Not in the mood for much of that, I climbed to a high point on the island and played with some local children. I gave them presents of the many finger puppets Ihad been cajoled into buying in Cuzco. You{d think Id given them gold! They were so happy.

Th next day, after a much needed 12 hr sleep, I was up and rearing to go again! After a short wander around the town (which is v small) I hopped on a bus bound for La Paz. As the bus wound its way up the hills, we were able to see Lake Titicaca in all its glory. Its huge!! At one point, the road ends and we all had to get on a little motor boat to take us across the lake, while the coach drove on to this rickety looking wooden craft which looked as if it would almost certainly sink! The crossing was very short and a small bridge would really take care of the problem, but I suppose maybe they cant afford to build one...

Arrived in La Paz yesterday evening at around 6ish. The carnival was in full swing and we were literally dumped into the traffic choked streets wth our bags! All around us devilish looking masks leered at us and waterbombs were fired through the air. I tried as quickly as I could to find my bearings and made off in a particular direction, hoping it was the right one. Thankfully, it was and before long I found the street I was looking for. In Copacobana, I made myself a promise that when I got to La Paz I was going to splurge and book a hotel as I hadnt had a hot shower in over a month. The place I{m Staying in is costing $25 a night (the equivalent of 5 nights accomdoation just for some hot water! but its sooooo worth it!) I hopped into the shower straight away and stood there for about an hour! Bliss!

This morning I met a lovely English couple at breakfast and we ended up spending 2 hours chatting.They are both photographers and their favourite place is Cuba. Ruth is 60 and Mike 72. He{s a jazz musician. Had a very interesting morning talking to them. They{ve been everywhere and had lots of great stories! After breakfast I headed out into the streets looking forward to a day of sightseeing and exploring. Ten minutes later I was back in my room soaked to the bone and changing my clothes! You cannot go out into the streets today unless you dont mind getting wet! EVERYWHERE people are throwing water, buckets from balconies, kids with supersoakers, waterbombers! Its great fun, but considering the fact that Im just over a chest infection I thought it wiser not to get stuck in. So, along with a lot of other tourists, I am a hostage in my hotel today. Its so crazy here, even the staff in the hotel are throwing water at each other!

Tomorrow night, I leave for Potosi to see the silver mines. Apparently, its a terrible experience but worth doing, according to most travellers Ive met whove come that way. Seeing as I{m so close I might as well check it out!

Dicks On Tour

I was chatting to someone today and I remembered something that happened to me and some friends when we were in America a few years ago. I had forgotten about it, and it had me in knots laughing today just thinking about it.

We had hired a van in San Fran and drove up to Yosemite. We arrived pretty late the first evening and picked a spot to camp in. We left our car at the spot and went off to do a bit of exploring before dark. When we got back to the spot, some German travellers had set up camp there and had settled in.

We explained to them that we had picked this spot and that we even had left some stuff in the metal bunker. They argued a bit but eventually gave in and moved somewhere else. We settled down for the night, happy that we had stood our ground.

The following morning we got up and were greeted with the following sight - the word "DICKS" had been scratched into the side of the van in massive letters. YIKES!!! We could only assume it was the Germans from the night before....

That was early in the road trip. We had to drive around California for the next week with DICK on the side of the car.

When we got back to SF all the girls stood in front of that side of the van so the guy at the car hire place wouldnt notice! LOL!!
We never heard anymore about it!