Travel Location: Venice,Italy

Travel About: architecture,natural-wonder,art-&-museum,adventure

It wasn’t a direct train so lots of people came on and off the train during our ride to Venice. There are also two stops in Venice but we only booked it to the first stop. Luckily the train attendant didn’t feel like kicking us out when he was checking tickets.

Though even the name Venice sounded beautiful, I had heard that Venice canals were actually a bit ugly and smelly. So I had reservations but after we got on the ferries to go to our hotel, I was blown away about with the Venetian architected houses right on the canals. The canals didn’t smell. It was a bit cloudy but there weren’t any trash that I could see on it. With the wind blowing in my hair and riding a boat on the canal, it was just one of those “ah” feelings.

Gotta get to the water to get anywhere in Venice

We got on land in the heart of Venice. There were lots and lots and lots of tourists. Everything is just about tourism there – I can only see restaurants, bakeries, tourists shops, and a handful of necessity shops like super/mini markets and pharmacies.

The streets are really so narrow. They were definitely only 2 lane walking streets. Given that Rome is made up of 117 islands, there were many very cute crossing bridges along with the streets. It wasn’t too hard to find our hotel and it was a cute one. The hotel had a “shabby sheek Venetian” style to it. So a bit dated but definitely cute and clean.

We had lunch and figured out what coddle fish was. It’s squid and the way the Venetians cooked it was delish! They used this dark, almost black sauce on it. Ken kept having these big black lines around his mouth. I had their mixed seafood special and it was a great way to experience the seafood specialties of Venice.

We decided here that we were not museum people, meaning if we didn’t want to look at one more marble art work or oil painting inside the museum or a chapel in the short term. Venice for us was about just walking the streets, finding interesting architecture,, taking photos, and just getting the vibe of the city. Oh and of course, lookin for good fridge magnets from a location. That might be the theme of most of our vacations from now on.

We did want to see the grand Piazza San Marcos and the outside of the Basilica di San Marco that we’ve heard so much about. It was really beautiful and one of the “wow” moments for us.

I was torn at this point, in that I was really starting to miss home but also really

Wow Moments:

San Marcos Square and Basilica

The pope!

Walking into Vatican Square

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Travel Location: Dargaville,New-Zealand

Travel About: natural-wonder,beach,hiking,hostel,farm,forest,kaihu-farm-hostel

We had a fun weekend up around Dargaville, a town on the west coast of Northland. We stayed at the Kaihu Farm Hostel which Avani loved. There were lots of animals there that she liked, including cows, sheep, two pet kunekune pigs, and a great farm dog, Buster. And since there were chickens there, we had to hear multiple times about how the rooster kicked her cousin, Addie, back in MN in October!

It was great to be back in a hostel again, with the simple amenities, communal atmosphere, and great conversation with other travelers. The hostel had a beautiful track, or hiking trail, through lush bush to a small glow worm dell. “Bush”, if I haven’t said it before, is the most underwhelming name Kiwis have for fantastically gorgeous forest, dense with giant tree ferns, long vines, nikau palms, and conifers.

The water is warm and crystal clear and the beaches are white and sugary soft.

On Friday we headed over to Baylys Beach, which is on the longest stretch of drivable beach in New Zealand – the 100km long Ripiro Ocean Beach. The sand is extremely hard-packed and people drive on it like it’s a highway. The beach overlooks the Tasman Sea, which is beautiful and completely undeveloped. Avani enjoyed it until a rogue wave knocked her off her feet and rolled her about 20 feet up the beach. After the initial scare, she took it well and wanted to do it again (minus the water in her nose).

We spent the first part of Saturday at the Dargaville Field Days, which was very Aggie to say the least. There was not enough good food and fun shopping for us and a little too much agricultural equipment, although the “De-Crap-It” attachment for a truck was interesting.

We went over to Kai Iwi lakes in the afternoon. They are three amazing freshwater lakes that were formed by rainwater filling in inland sand dunes. The water is warm and crystal clear and the beaches are white and sugary soft. Avani had a great time splashing about and not getting knocked about by waves. On Saturday night, we went to Trounson Kauri Park on the recommendation of the hostel owner and got to listen to wild kiwis calling to each other. Even though we didn’t see one, it was still a great treat since these small flightless birds are so rare now.

We spent Sunday hiking in the Waipoua Kauri Forest, the largest remnant of the once extensive kauri forests (now 95% gone due to logging in the 19th century). These are some of the largest trees on the planet and pictures just can’t relay how enormous and beautiful they are. We saw one tree, Te Mahua Ngahere (“Father of the Forest”) that was 53 feet in girth and about 2000 years old, and another, Tane Mahuta (“God of the Forest”) that is the largest kauri tree still living. Avani kept saying “Wow, that’s a big tree”.

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Travel Location: Uyuni,Bolivia

Travel About: natural-wonder,train,misadventure,bus,salt-flats,bolivia,awesome,thief,miserable

Greetings from the great continent of South America and the not so great country of Bolivia!!! We have had quite an adventure since I talked to you all last. I believe my last entry was typed in Corumba, so I will start from there.

We crossed the Brazil-Bolivian border via bus, and arrived in a town call Quijarro (pronounced `kee-HAR-oh`). From Quijarro we boarded a train called ´The Death Train´ bound for Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The train ride was somewhat miserable, due to the fact that we bounced around on the tracks like the train-cars were on pogo-sticks or something (maybe this is why it`s called the death train). We rode all through the night, stopping at little villages along the way for food and stretching. After 22 hours we arrived in Santa Cruz and stepped off the train groggy, sore, and not looking forward to any more traveling. However, traveling was the special on the menu-of-the-day, so we researched busses destined for Sucre, boarded the appropriate one (after getting scammed out of 100 Bolivianos with the bus tickets; people here have no integrity and most are trying to cheat you out of as much money as they can), and laid our heads down for the long trip to Sucre. After a miserable busride (the buses are at least 20 years old and none of the roads are paved), we arrived in Sucre groggy, sore, and not looking foward to more traveling. But, once again, we had places to be and things to see, so we boarded yet another bus bound for Potosi. This ride proved to be the second worst ride yet (I`ll describe the worst later on). You see, these people are so poor that the bus companies cram as many people onto the busses as they can. When the seats are filled up, people stand/sit/sleep in the aisles, which makes for a very uncomfortable/smelly/miserable ride. In fact, it was on this ride that a small child vomited all over Jema`s right foot. Combine that with the fact that we were very fatigued and a little ill, and we thought we might be making a bad decision to travel through Bolivia. We arrived in Potosi in pretty bad condition (emotions: angry, depressed, hopeless, crazy) (physical state: sleep deprived, sore, hungry, ill, and desperately need to use the toilet). Potosi is the highest city in the world (13,000 ft), and at elevations this high, altitude sickness can take it´s toll. We walked as slow as we could and didn´t eat much so as to ward off the altitude sickness. During our time in Potosi I was able to call my Mom on her birthday, which made both of us very happy. After a lot of walking around and eating fried potatoes, we boarded yet another bus for Uyuni (pronounced `you-YOU-nee`), which was our final destination. We rode on the bus with a group of very nice Russians whom offered to trade seats with me so I could have more leg room. However, this was the absolute worst ride so far because of the mental and physical state we were in, and because the bus was basically a big van and the dirt roads were especially worn. We arrived in Uyuni at midnight, which made the situation worse. We were in desperate need for a warm bed and a good night´s sleep. A nice man who was trying to get us to go on a Salar tour with him (more on the Salar later) drove us around until we found a hotel. At last we found one that had a vacancy and we got a room. The room was ice cold (we were at about 12,000 feet elevation in the winter and there was no heat in the room). We crawled into bed with all of our warm layers on and slowly warmed up and slowly drifted off to sleep.

His beady little eyes spelled guilt!

The next day we decided to hang around town, wash clothes, recharge our bodies and minds, and find a good tour agency for our tour of the most expansive salt flats in the world. We did all of this, including eating at a delicious pizza place owned and operated by a guy from Amherst, Massachusetts. The food was great and we drank excellent wine and good beer. The next day at 11:00 we packed our bags on top of a Toyota LandCruiser, and set off on a three day tour of the Salar de Uyuni with three Australian girls, one Bolivian girl, and the guide/driver and cook. The Salar de Uyuni is what is left from a huge, ancient sea that evaporated a long time ago. The salt flat covers 8,000 square miles and at some places is 30 feet thick. Our first stop on the tour was where they were mining the salt. Mining isn`t the right word, though, because basically what they were doing was digging the salt by hand with shovels and throwing it into the back of a small dump-truck. The workers let Jema and I do a bit of salt-shoveling, which is suprisingly similar to shoveling snow. We picked up a little chunk and tasted it, but to our suprise it didn`t really taste all that salty. The miners told us that the salt in that particular area wasn`t very good quality, and it will be mixed with more pure salt from another flat. After another ride in the Landcruiser we stopped at an `island` that was covered in giant cactus. The island was just a mass of earth sticking up out of the salt flat, and looking out onto the flat from the island made it feel like you were in the middle of the ocean. Here we ate lunch made by our cook (the food was suprisingly good), and jumped into the landcruiser again for a ride to our accomidation. The small hotel we stayed at was made almost entirely of salt; walls, tables, and chairs were made of bricks of salt and the floor was loose salt. Jema and I ate some more good food made by the cook and played cards and shared a bottle of wine with the Australian girls. We then retired to our beds (the frames were block salt, mattresses were fair quality), for the best sleep I`ve had in days. We were up and eating breakfast with the sun, then loaded up the mochillas (backpacks), onto the top of the Landcruiser and headed off to see more sights. We saw several different lakes; one was even red because of the chemicals. We stopped at an active volcano and saw some really cool rock formations. All in all the day was mostly comprised of riding in the landcruiser and stopping at different lakes for 10 minutes at a time. In the evening we arrived at our accomidation for the night, which was a building made out of earthen brick. We played more cards, talked to some rich kids from the east coast who were volunteering in Bolivia, ate some delicious spaghetti, drank wine, rum, and vodka, and then laid our heads down for some sleep. The next morning we awoke about one hour before sunrise so we could make it to some hot springs before light. We arrived at the hot springs and the Aussies, Jema, and I debated whether or not to get in. After 30 minutes of wavering back and forth three of us (Jema, me, and Kylie) decided to strip down to our underwear and jump into the natural hot water. Our decision was genius. The water was super refreshing. We relaxed in the steamy pool for about half-an-hour before it was time to get out and eat breakfast. The eggs, toast, and coffee filled us up for the long ride ahead. Our first sight was a valley called `The Valley of Salvador Dali`, so named because Dali spent several days here one time and the scenery is very surreal, much like his paintings. We had stops at some more cool rock formations, some nice little villages in the middle of nowhere. The long drive back to Uyuni was almost torture. After three days stuffed into a landcruiser with seven other people, I was ready to be done with driving. It was after dark that I shouted out in joy when we arrived in Uyuni. Our bus to La Paz left at 8:00 pm, and it was roughly 7:00 when our guide, Alejandro, was unloading our mochillas off the top of the landcruiser. Jema and the Aussies went into the bus office to square away the ticket business, and I stood outside watching the bags. Jema quickly alerted me that the our tickets were fine but the Australian girls had gotten cheated by the tour company. The girls ran accross town to the tour company office to get their money back. When they returned, a deal was made for the girls to take our tickets and get on the bus, and Jema and I took their money so we could buy bus tickets for the next day. While the girls were inside the office making the arrangements for the exchange, I was still outside watching the bags. While I was standing there, leaning against the wall with the backs to my left, a man came up to me on my right and started talking to me in Spanish. I said to him `No hablo Español`, but he kept rambling on and on like he was asking me questions. After a few sentences of this he ubruptly turned and walked away. I sensed something was amiss but I could not quite figure it out right way. It wasn`t until I looked down at the bags that I realized Jema`s bag was missing. What had happened was this: The man who was talking to me was a diversion, and he averted my attention to the right while another man was on my left stealing Jema`s bag. As soon as I realized what had happened I grabbed all the other bags into my arms, ran into the bus office, and yelled, `Jema, your bag just got stolen`. I then dropped the bags in the office, turned around as fast as I could, and ran in the direction I suspected the thief had gone. I rounded the corner of the building and scanned frantically at all the people in front of me. Most were wearing backpacks, but in the dark I could not identify if one was Jema`s or not. I ran from person to person to get a better look, but none of them were it. I stopped at an old man who was carrying a large black sack filled with something. After frantically asking him if he had seen anything, I realized he didn`t speak English, so I ran to the next person, and the next. After exhausted from searching, I slowed down and was almost ready to give up, when I man in dark blue overalls stopped me. He did not speak English either, but he made it clear which direction I should be searching. I thanked him for his help and ran down the street, and around a corner as he had instructed. My eyes fell upon the old man with the big black sack that I had tried to talk to earlier. As I watched him move away from me down the sidewalk, I noticed he was walking a little faster than he needed to, and he was clutching his big black back a little to firmly. As I ran up to him, he turned his head towards me and picked up his pace a little. His beady little eyes spelled guilt! I spyed the big black bag slung over his shoulder and a part of me wanted to rip it away from him and find out if Jema`s bag was in there. Thankfully, it didn`t come to this, because after saying `amigo, mochilla`, about five times, he took the black sack off his shoulder and dumped Jema`s bag onto the ground. Maybe part of the reason he gave it up was because I was at least 8 feet taller than him, or maybe he was suprised at being caught. I picked the bag up off the ground with great relief. All of her belongings were in this backpack, and if it had been lost a huge dent would have been put into the rest of our trip. I look back now and think I should have run after the guy and tackled him and screamed at him, or at least gotten a better look at his face. Instead all I could do was smile with joy and walk back to the bus office, looking forward to telling Jema I had chased the crook down and gotten her bag back. When I arrived at the bus office, however, Jema was not there. The Australian girls told me that she had ran after me. I remembered seeing her in the intersection before I ran up to the old man. I decided to go back out onto the streets and look for her. I searched and searched for nearly an hour, shouting her name and getting more worried by the minute. We were in an unfamiliar town, and if some guys are willing to steal a backpack, what else are they willing to do? My mind was racing with all the possible situations and that made my search more frantic. I ran down the streets with my fists clenched. Stopping at every intersection, I looked down the streets at all the people in the darkness to see if I could recognize her walk. With every passing second I got more worried and more scared. I prayed to God that I would find her and swore to myself that if anyone hurt her I would hurt them more. Every ten minutes I would run back to the bus station to see if she had returned. Everytime the other girls told me she was still out there. After checking back the last time, I ran out of the office, breathless and exhausted from the high elevation. I decided to search a different neighborhood, and headed off in that direction. All of a sudden I heard a whistle, which is Jema`s often prefered attention-getter. I turned around to see if it was her. I then heard another whistle, and then another. It seemed as if everyone around me was whistling. I kept turning around to see if it was Jema. Finally, after rabidly spinning around searching for my girlfriend, I saw her walking towards me with her arms outstretched. When I saw her I started running and picked her up in my arms, thankful that she was alright. After much hugging and telling eachother what we had done (Jema had run a different direction), and rejoicing over having the bag back, we said goodbye to the Jess and Julie (who boarded a bus for La Paz), and got a room at the hostel we had stayed in the first night. We tried for dinner at Minuteman Pizza, but it had closed early for some reason. So we walked to the Plaza and found a nice pizza joint inhabited by two drunk men, one Scottish and one Australian. The rest of the night was spent talking about the missing backpack adventure, and our plans for the next day, next week, and rest of the trip.

I hope everyone is having a great July!!! I`ll be in California in five weeks, so if anyone is headed that way this fall, drop me a line. Bye!!!

Patrick =:-)

Stay tuned for the next installment, when I describe `The Most Dangerous Road`, `120 miles in 9 hours`, and `Trinidad`.

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Travel Location: Arthur’s-Pass,New-Zealand

Travel About: natural-wonder,nightlife,train

Greymouth – Christchurch via Arthur’s Pass

We bought a 7 day rail pass so we could journey back to Auckland via some world famous train lines. We first caught a train to Greymouth where we had lunch before backing our tracks back to Arthur’s Pass National Park. It was meant to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. We started off going over the canterbury plains , which is made up of the sediment that has been carried by the glaciers from the Southern Alps and then dumped. Then we slowly climbed up to the mountains, passing spectacular views of gorges, rivers, forests and the mountains themselves.

We got off at Arthur’s Pass where we went on a few short walks. We were lucky to see the mountains as the previous few days had been rainy and cloudy (apparently we had colder and wetter weather than the UK!!). We went on a walk up one of the sides of a mountain where we had great views of the valley north of Arthur’s Pass. We then climbed a lot of stairs to reach Devil’s Punchball Waterfall before catching the train back to Christchurch.

Christchurch – Kaikoura

The next day we caught the train to Kaikoura, where we got stunning views of the coast line on one side and the mountains on the other. The train goes along some stretches that are inaccessible by car. We also passed salt plains, which were an impressive pink colour.

Kaikoura is the place to go whale watching…but decided not to bother, as we had both been before! We really enjoyed pottering about the town… we went shopping…we found an amazing cafe which baked very yummy cakes….and had a very nice glass of wine with an interesting french lady we had met previously in Arthur’s Pass.

Kaikoura – Wellington

We caught the train up to Picton before catching the ferry to Wellington, where Tony very kindly came to pick us up from the station (check out all the stuff we were carrying!! Thank you Tony) Although in return for the lift we had to shift all this smelly garden waste to a skip outside the house…well we volunteered and it was quite good fun throwing it over the fence into the skip!

We loved Wellinton and staying at Tony and Megan’s so much we extended the one night we were going to stay, to three! We spent our time visiting our favourite cafe’s, visiting Freak Street(as Tony calls it) aka Cuba Street to the rest of Wellington. On Cuba Street we saw the bucket fountain and even avoided getting drenched by it. We also had a night out and even went for a boogie…yipee!! It was good fun and we sort of went for a dance crawl (instead of a pub crawl) as we visited about 5/6 bars and clubs, and had a dance in each! Tony you should put on your dancing shoes more often! We once again had a brilliant time in the capital and were very sad to leave…Thank you Tony and Megan for making us feel so welcome.

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Travel Location: Severobaikalsk,Russia

Travel About: natural-wonder,cultural-immersion,market

Thursday 17th August

As mentioned already, everything in our time capsule called the Trans Siberian train, operates in MT. At 02h00am [7am actually], we were all woken up to the loud strains of Russian pop songs! In 1hr we arrive in Severobaikalsk at the far northern end of Lake Baikal. The scenery has changed dramatically during the night and we are surrounded now by wonderful bubbling rivers and mountains!! Something we haven’t seen much of since Zakopane and Tatras in Poland. The vast, endless flat plains of Siberia end here and the “Blue Eye of Siberia”, the world’s oldest and deepest lake, takes it’s place. Lake Baikal is 1637m deep, is 636km long, up to 60km wide and contains roughly 20% of the planets fresh water. Severbaikalsk town isn’t too much to rave about, being a very rundown and poor place. The old concrete soviet blocks of flats abound in addition to entire shanty towns of ugly, crooked wooden houses. We heard that a few years back this lakeside town was a thriving and happening place, with the pavement cafe culture and everything that goes with it. Today, and what we are seeing, is a place where a handful of rich businesses have all but squeezed the “little guys” out, leaving in it’s wake a depressed, sad town filled with drunken bums and bored kids. Very sad indeed.

The Northern End of Lake Baikal

We discovered a small hotel, a former youth centre, and checked in for a couple of nights. The Russian ladies who welcomed us are fantastic. No word of English of course but somehow we managed to understand each other. They just giggle with amusement as we all try to get our messages across! For the first time in over a week we had a SHOWER!! but…. it was cold!! No hot water here! Desparate to get clean we had no choice.. can’t be choosy. It was a numbing but refreshing experience tho’!!

Friday 18th August

Our main mission today was to seek out a man called Rashit Yakhin, somebody who had been recommended to us, to help us sort out our intended hydrofoil trip down Lake Baikal – from top to bottom. We had his address and discovered that he lives about 10 minutes from where we are staying. Off we went and saw that we had to negotiate the highly confusing rabbit warren streets of one of the higgeldy-piggeldy wooden villages. The entire morning turned into an adventure all of it’s own. We traipsed up and down, in and around, lengthwise, horizontal-wise, vertical-wise and every which way, but couldn’t find the house we wanted. The house numbering system defies logic [at least to us] and if you find a legible street name, you score an extra point! Instead of getting all frustrated we made the outing into a sort of selfmade tour! It was fascinating to observe life here. Every single home has an extensive backyard filled to capacity with home grown fruit and vegetables and piles of wood. Being a country that reaches minus 45 or more in winter, everybody has to prepare for that, so therefore cultivates and stocks up on reserves to get them through the bitterly cold winter months. With the Siberian winter only a few months away the village was a hive of activity. These wooden villages, we think, also disguise the apparent wealth of some folk who maybe don’t wish to be seen as more affluent than other. Anyway, after at least 3hrs of not finding Rashit, we went back to our hotel and organised to use their phone. We arranged to meet him at 3pm, but called a taxi to take us there! When even the taxi couldn’t find the place properly, we felt a lot better!! We eventually saw a lady, who happened to be Rashit’s wife, waving and beckoning to us from down the muddy street. We were warmly welcomed into their home and met the man we’d heard a lot about from a fellow traveller, Scott Simon. I need to explain here that Rashit suffered from an immobilizing stroke about 15 years ago so his actions, responses and speech are quite slow. This however has not taken away the very tangible spirit and passion for life of this remarkable man. He led us into his cosy office and immediately wanted to know all about us, the first people from South Africa he’s met. We then explained why we’d sought him out and for 4hours he offered endless help, informatin and suggestions for our stay in Russia and the Baikal area specifically. He also shared some the wildly exciting ideas he has for planning Siberian winter excursions for tourists. Stuff like 10-day “trails” which would include some snow walking, sledging across the frozen lake Baikal, sleeping in big 12-man tents and generally introducing the whole concept of mid-Siberian winter adventure treks. The enthusiasm for life that this man exudes is awesome. He may be 90% immobile but his mind most definately works at a fast pace. We were so inspired by the tales he told that the 4hrs slipped by in the blink of an eye. An incredible man who touches your heart in the warmest way. It was such a pleasure to meet a man like this and his unforgetable personality has made a lasting impression on both of us.

Saturday 19th August

As a result of our visit to Rashit yesterday, we have now arranged our hydrofoil trip down the lake, starting next Wed, 4 days time. Hence we’ll be in Severobaikalsk for a further few days. There isn’t too much to do around here except lakeside hikes or boat trips. The latter being on the pricey side, left us with the walking option – BUT the weather here is changing very quickly. The rain is setting in, it’s rather cold, even icy at night, so walking isn’t too pleasant. However, walk we did!! We came across some very colourful wooden houses close to the lake and found some other wooden homes with the most intricately carved designs. A rain downpour appeared from nowhere, so we found shelter in an upturned rusty container! Then to the little beach situated on a tiny spit next to Lake Baikal. The views across the lake towards the mountains on the other side are like looking out into the vast seas of the Atlantic or Indian oceans. this lake is enormous…!Once again the rain appeared, we sheltered beneath the wrought iron umbrellas and watched as the grey misty rain swept it’s way across the lake. Back in the relative warmth of the hostel, David cooked up a storm in the kitchen and produced a wonderfully welcome, wholesome and healthy curry!

Sunday 20th August

The rain is still pouring down today and it’s a nasty icy rain! It’s hard for us to believe that winter weather starts so early here….brrr… and this hostel has no hot water at all. In fact we’ve never experienced such freezing cold water coming out of the tap. The hands actually ache from it!! We didn’t do much at all except some internet [on highly frustrating PC's which were slow and kept dropping the line].

Monday 21st August

Walking around the markets today we bumped into our new friend, Rashit, who was searching out a new tyre for his wheelchair. We chatted for a bit before continuing on our way but not without promising that we would email him from Irkutsk with feedback on our hydrofoil trip. As colder weather is definately on the way, David wanted to buy a real good Siberian winter jacket. I have cold weather stuff so am OK, but really wouldn’t mind finding a nice pair of thick, woolly Siberian boots! Wonder if I’ll ever wear them in SA tho?? We returned to the hostel to find it filled with Russian army guys who kind of just took over the place!! A rather hectic bunch of beer/vodka drinkers!

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Travel Location: Lake-Como,Italy

Travel About: natural-wonder,road-trip

So, Como is said to be an industrial town, but historically it was set up as a defense area against attacks from the Alps. I think it is beautiful and peaceful. It is built into the mountains surrounding a very deep lake, and the villas surround every inch of the shoreline.

I feel that this is my Christmas. Not only because it is decorated accordingly, and the weather feels like Wisconsin in December, but because of my approach to my week here. I am relaxing! I am staying at a B and B run by an Austrian woman who speaks wonderful English. I have a whole apartment to myself with a patio overlooking the lake! It is so plush and nice compared to most of the places I have been staying, it is my Christmas present to myself. While the price is a little more than my normal accomodations, it is not bad because it is low season here. I have been lounging on my couch, sleeping under my down comforter, and sipping my hand delivered coffee every morning looking out at the lake and the mountains in the background. This is definately the life.

The one adventure here is the bus! I have to catch the bus on a windy road outside my B and B. It is always packed full of locals, and no one seems to know a word of English. I have to describe my stop to the bus driver in my broken Italian, and pray he understands me! I also have to close my eyes most of the ride. Imagine, a giant stone wall on one side, a cliff leading to the lake on the other, and cars speeding directly at you on a narrow road. Who will stop, who will veer? Will we crash or plummet to our deaths? This is the joy of riding in an Italian bus in the mountains! Ha, ha! These drivers do this day in and day out, but I could never drive here!

I am staying directly across the lake from George Clooneys villa. For all you celebrity watchers, he is not here! Oh, well. He is actually in Egypt discussing Dafur with the president there. Good for him. Anyway, I am loving this relaxing week.

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Travel Location: Kumily,India

Travel About: natural-wonder,resort

This was my favorite part of the trip. Of course this was the most expensive as we were staying in a resort, but it was only expensive by India’s terms and it was worth every penny. Driving into the hills of Kumily is beautiful. As you wind your way up the hillside you watch the landscape change. Fewer houses are visible from the roadside, there are small Homestays and businesses on the side roads, but for the most part all you see are tea and spice plantations. When we arrived at Spice Village we quickly understood where it’s name came from. I have never smelled anything so wonderful. The weather is cooler up there but still warm enough for the sun to ignite the amazing aromas of all of the vegetation. The grounds contained every imaginable Indian spice: pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, curry, tumeric, lemon grass all swirling through the air. It was magnificent!

The staff was incredibly accommodating. They were helpful and attentive. Aside from activities offered at the hotel such as sari wrapping, a cooking class and live music and dance performances each night, they also provide knowledgable guides who can take you into Periyar park or direct you to a place to ride an elephant or visit a tea plantation. I could have spent a week here easily!

This was my favorite part of the trip!

Each room is it’s own adorable thatch-roofed cottage and the grounds are constantly being maintained. We were greeted by the hotel’s guinea hens who were also the morning wake-up crew. What a nice way to start the day.

The food was fresh and excellent. There is a small outdoor cafe that serves light meals and a buffet is offered for Breakfast and dinner.

One thing I really appreciated was that they offered to put any outside activities that we wanted to do (such as visiting Periyar) on our hotel bill so that we didn’t need to have cash as the city is small and money machines are not readily available. They also would not accept tips individually but had a box at the front where you put combined tip money for the staff share. I thought this was a nice touch as there was always someone around doing something great for you.

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Travel Location: Niagara-Falls,Canada

Travel About: natural-wonder,hotel

Ahh Canada here I come! While Stelle went to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit some friends, I had booked myself a little getaway to the Canadian Side of Niagara Falls!

I flew from LaGuardia, NYC to Buffalo, NY on Boxing Day… I was expecting blizzards or at least zero degree temps with some signs of snow – no, a healthy 4*C and no snow! Im not complaining!

The Falls!-more photos to be added late Feb 07

After a fab little free city tour on my shuttle to my hotel (free because it was a airport shuttle that went via niagara fallsview and I didn’t get dropped off first- again, no complaints here!), I arrived at my palace of choice that would comfort me for the next 3 blissful days! I chose this hotel, the Doubletree Fallsview because I didn’t want to stay in an ordinary looking run of the mill hotel. This was built as a Canadian Mountain Lodge Spa Retreat! Complete with Aveda Day Spa, jacuzzi and friendly service (ooh and the fab little free choccie cookies you get when you check in – so good I got extras!)…

Whilst not directly in the main district of tacky Clifton Hill area which overlooks the falls, my hotel was only a 10-12min walk to the falls (canadian side) and when I got to my room – I had a view of the falls too! very happy.

I spent the next 3 days taking photos of the falls, eating scrummy canadian pancake brekkies, enjoying my jacuzzi and getting over my jetlag by taking lovely little afternoon siestas whenever the urge arose… This little getaway well prepared me for my next adventure – back to NYC for New Years Eve and more sightseeing!!!!!!!

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Travel Location: San-Francisco,United-States

Travel About: natural-wonder,park,mountain,waterfall

For my last adventure in San Francisco, I headed off to Yosemite National Park for a day trip. After a very early start we hit the freeway and were in the park by mid-morning. We headed straight to what Yosemite is famous for, El Capitano and Half Dome. These are 2 huge granite rocks that are pretty impressive. We got pretty close to El Capitano but sadly only saw Half Dome from a distance. After a couple of strolls to see some beautiful waterfalls, we stopped to watch some crazy climbers up on El Capitano, apparently it takes 3 days to get to the top! Lunch was spent sitting right next to a waterfalla and then we headed to see the Giant Sequoa’s. These are trees that are the largest living organisim in the world. And, boy, are they big!

Well, after 10 days in San Fran I think I have pretty much seen everything there is too see! Its been fantastic and tomorrow I fly to my next adventure, Costa Rica. I will be spending the 1st week attending Spanish School in San Jose and staying with a host family and then I meet up with my project on the 2nd of July.

yosemite

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Travel Location: Lombok,Indonesia

Travel About: natural-wonder,beach,adventure,surfing

So I left flores on the Ferry across to Sumbawa.

Got on a bus in Sumbawa and took it across to another Ferry to get to Lombok.

Got on yet another bus, got dropped off on the side of the road for the tunr off south to Kuta, Lombok (not kuta, Bali) and grabbed a cheap ride in a bemo (small mini van thing with massive sound systems. Funny thing actually, the bemo drivers love putting huge sound systems in their rides, no idea where they get the equipment, but you can pick which one you want to take based on the music and sound level. A few times I almost went deft, funny guys.

So I arrived in kuta, along with some a Canadian guy named Christian and an English fella named Chris. I met them on the Ferry from Flores, super rad dudes, and really nice to finally have some other travellers to talk with.

While in Kuta we rented motorbikes and toured around the area, checking out seculded beaches, little villages, and just rippin in general.

Christian blew a tire so had to push the bike to a small town to try and get fixed, luckily, no big deal.

That night we got drunk off Bintang, met a cool guy that told us to call him American Steve, and Christian got bit by a big geko

Next day, we rented more bikes, some surf boards and a hired a guy to give us a ride out to the break in his fishing boat.

The surf break was a reef break, a few miles out to sea. Pretty gnarly stuff, biggest waves i’ve ever been on, and most extreme location in general. Super fun, I got to ride a couple, but I was getting worked out there. Quite humbleing.

Headed back in we just chilled and organized how we were going to get out of there. I was heading to Gili Trawanagan, a small island off the northwest coast of Lombok, and the boys were headin to Bali.

Onward to Gilli T.

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