7 days to go...

Pinch, punch, first of the month to you.

8 months to the day, I'll be returning home to colder shores and full priced everything. Joy!
To finish things off I'm off to chill on Ilha Grande for the remaining days to try and get a tan - I have to make it look as if I have been away for a while after all ;-)

See you soon...

At the Maracana stadium for the Flamengo vs. Athletico game (Flamengo edged it 1-0)

View from Sugar Loaf

A few beers and the view over Rio... Bliss!

It's a tough life

So there I was at the check-in desk of BA at Buenos Aires airport, sad to be leaving B.Aires but looking forward to warmer weather in São Paulo when the check-in lady brings me back from my thoughts: "Here's your boarding pass sir, seat 4A. Oh, we upgraded you to first class by the way. Have a nice flight."

Result!

I just hope I can wangle the same for the flight back to London... :) 2 hours was barely enough to fully appreciate it ;)

Long time no see

Just a quickie to say (a) I'm alive and (b) that there are more photos over on the flickr site now.

Still no phone number but I do have a new battery in my watch so I now know what time it is, hurrah!

Gringo-rama

Well it's been a week in South America and despite my appalling Spanish I'm still fed, rested and drinking way too much vino tinto. Some of Guido's fluid expletives are starting to make a bit more sense however ;-)

Santiago was quite pleasant and I managed to do most of the touristy things such as:
- wander around the old town
- head over to Valparaiso
- getting ripped off by the taxi driver from the airport

At the moment I'm sitting in an airport bar in Lima waiting for my connecting flight to Quito (and the Galapagos Islands tomorrow - wooo!) after a very long travel day so far. Due to fog in Santiago my 0645 flight was delayed 7 hours. So... instead of arriving in Quito at the pleasant hour of 1pm it's now going to be 12am. Oh, and the flight out to the Galapagos Islands is at 1030 tomorrow so the hotel stay is going to be short but sweet :)

Sweet as!

Not quite sure what they mean, but they say that a lot in NZ! Anyhoo, I'm off to Santiago tomorrow so back to the realm of not knowing what the h*** anyone is saying to me once more...

The phone will also be dead, so stay tuned for a new number at some point.

Dos cervezas, por favor! Le sange est dans l'arbre!

Map-tastic

I've added a Google Maps link to the right hand side that shows where the Stray coach tour has dragged me kicking and screaming at various ungodly hours (on the road by 7am???)

It's been a bit of a whirlwind tour cramming it all into about 3-4 weeks, but it's given me a flavour for where to spend more time for the next journey here ;-)

Spot the kiwi

Hmm, it's been a while since I've updated this thing. Mainly due to the lack of decent 'net facilities out in the backwaters of New Zealand rather than my laziness I'm sure you'll understand...

A few of the places visited while on the 'Stray' bus:

Rotorua - Smells nasty but if spa's are your thing, this is the place to go
Waitomo - Abseiling in caves and admiring maggots with burning poo (or glow-worms to the rest of us)


Raglan - surfers paradise, if that's your cup of tea
Tongariro National Park - with the real version if Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings films and one day walk across 17km of mountains, snow/ice and forests
Barrytown - drinking, not much else to do there!
Queenstown - skiing, skiing and a bit more skiing

Note to self, skip Auckland next time

I can't quite put my finger on it, but Auckland isn't agreeing with me. Maybe it's the traffic pollution here (surprisingly bad) or the mentality of the drivers (surprisingly aggressive) that's bugging me. Downtown is being churned up for some pavement renovations but even without those it strikes me as a characterless place. There's not even much to do around the city for that matter. Ho hum. My advice to others, fly into Christchurch or Wellington if you can and skip Auckland.

On Thursday I'm leaving the big smoke on a backpacker bus type thing. Should be interesting :-)

New country, new number

Now that I'm in Kiwi land, it's +64 211 173431

Am currently battling a cold (and losing). Ughhhhh. Snot-tastic.

End of the line (or is it?)

64 days after leaving Perth I've finally made it to the promised land. Or Sydney as some like to call it.

The weather is a bit Brit like for my liking at the moment though! Rain, rain and yet more rain...

If the weather holds out on Sunday I'll do a final fling day trip over to Canberra to say goodbye to the old girl *sniff* (the bike that is...)

And I would walk 500 ride 10,000 miles...

Hurrah, I finally passed the 10,000 mile mark (16,000km to those of you in metric land) the other day. To celebrate I visited various BIG things (well, they were on the way down the east coast, I didn't make a detour especially to see them.... well not much :)

Update: Google seem to have cottoned onto the fact you could have unlimited driving route destinations in the past and have now capped the number of destinations. Curses! I've changed the map link on the right to show the places instead. Not as funky as the route but it'll have to do for now.

A life on the open sea

As you can see I survived the sailing adventure in the Whitsundays :-) I ended up being with a group of 15 Americans who are all studying down at one of the Uni's in Sydney. Took me a while to remember everyones name but I got there with one night left to spare. Funnily enough they seemed to have no problems remembering my name...

Upon returning I wobbled (sea legs not yet become land legs...) down to Sarina for the night where the locals attempted to persuade me to see the worlds smallest sugar refinery (they failed).

Next up a quick night in Rockhampton (beef capital of Australia allegedly... every town claims to be the capital of something it seems) and after that a short stopover in Rainbow Beach with a bunch of rowdy Cockatoos.

As all this riding is clocking up the miles, it was time to get the bike serviced yet again so Brisbane became the stop for that task. I managed to use my innate sense of direction to find the bike shop without a proper map and in the rain. I impressed myself!

The current mileage is showing just under 16,000km (10,000 miles) done to date. Not too shabby if I say so myself. :)

I'm currently in beautiful Byron Bay being forced to watch humpback whales migrating north, dolphins, sharks and turtles playing around in the sea. On the move again tomorrow but as usual, no idea where the next stop will take me to...

When in doubt, head for the pub

Wise words if you ask me. Especially when I rolled into town at 9pm with no accommodation sorted out and the local pub in Proserpine had one room left... A couple of pints and some welcome sleep after 8 hours on the road. An owl came suspiciously close to me on the bike on the way down here. Maybe it mistook me for a rather noisy fast fat mouse??

I'm now in Airlie beach (Mr. O'Connell, guessing you must have stopped here too :) for a couple days and might force myself to go on a sailing trip... Airlie is the jumping off point for the Whitsunday group of islands. I've also had a long overdue haircut after the helmet hair bugged me for the last time :)

The map link has now been updated. If you use Firefox it displays the map muuuccchhhhhh quicker than Internet Explorer, just for your information

Head north for the winter

I'm about 200 miles east of Melbourne, the skies are looking a bit ominous and it's actually cold riding the bike (yes, poor me) when I hatch a genius idea. Head north! Sydney can wait (I still had a month left when making the decision). And so a week later and about 3500km covered, here I am in nice warm tropical Port Douglas.

Palm trees, rainforest, the barrier reef nearby and crocs, what more could you ask for?

If I had to do that trek again I'd probably not do the inland route though. I now know why the roads are called 'developmental' - single lane for you and the oncoming traffic, usually roadtrains, with a some lovely gravel on either side to aid in the passing of one another. The Nullarbor truly was easy in comparison!

PS. Allegedly there's a cyclone heading this way. Should be interesting... :)

PPS. Map link updated, takes forever for Google to display the page for me - hope it's as slow for you!

Ben and the art of motorcycle maintenance

This is the one title I was hoping I'd never have to use... But, thanks to the denizens of Tamworth (and more likely the pissed patrons of the Imperial Hotel), some getting hands dirty action was required.

First thing I noticed was the spark plugs leads had been removed from the plugs (not a big deal, just plug them back in, has happened before...). With that done I turned the engine on to warm up before heading off, to find petrol trickling by my feet. What the $^*#??? It seems someone thought it would be a genius idea to rip the fuel line hose. Judging by the scratch marks on the ground too they probably tried to wheel the bike off somewhere but thanks to the good old steering lock that scuppered their plans.

With it being Sunday and in small town Australia, finding an open auto parts shop involved a good 5km trek but in the end I got everything patched up and motored onto the next town. Conveniently enough the next town (Armidale) is where I'd scheduled a regular service for the bike anyway. If anything was amiss then hopefully the mechanics will pick it up (I did ask them to double check when dropping it off earlier).

Happy happy joy joy!

The picture is of the Parkes Radio Telescope which I passed on the way to Tamworth.

The lights are on, but noone is home

One of the benefits of traveling around Oz during the off season, is that the majority of hostels outside of the big cities are pretty quiet. Or as is the case tonight in Foster, completely empty bar my good self. A whole house to myself for under a tenner. Sounds like a good deal to me.

After a few nights in Melbourne (very nice place) I'm glad to not be sharing with snoring and flatulent room-mates anymore...



I had a minor panic on the way here when a glance in the Lonely Planet failed to mention the town. I found a Forster in neighbouring New South Wales mentioned... Turns out my spidey senses where tingling in the right direction and there was indeed the hostel here that I thought there was (phew!)

Great Ocean Road (part 2)

Hmm, I definitely preferred the section before Apollo Bay to the stretch up towards Melbourne. Maybe it was just the fact I was riding before 10am (early for me, put it that way) that put me off it or the idiotic drivers trying to get past a big group of cyclists (punks!). No patience these days I tell you...

I stopped for lunch at Airey's Inlet and if anyone remembers the TV show 'Round the Twist' (I know some people who should know it, didn't...), then this is the place it was filmed at.

I'm now in Melbourne, sampled some coffee and am now being forced to drink while on the 'net (it's cheaper apparently, and who am I to argue with them). I've also changed my flight dates seeing as I was supposed to be flying out of Sydney to Auckland on the 12th May (never going to happen). It's now 12th June - mum/dad, take note! :)

Edit: Map page updated and some new pictures added to the flickr page. Link over here ------------->

Great Ocean Road (part 1)

This road is a bugger, but for all the right reasons. Almost every few kilometres there's some sight/lookout/place of interest that you feel compelled to stop at and check out. And I'm only in the middle of the road at Apollo Bay at present. Note to motorcyclists, beware of the winding roads trailing around Otway National Park - gravel and sharpening corners make for some interesting riding (and did I mention the sights to distract you along the way ;-)

Rain, rain, go away...

After 6 weeks here, the rain finally hunted me down and got me good and proper. I'm glad I did decided to buy those waterproofs for riding in the end... It's a pity the waterproof luggage bag failed to live up to it's claims but it wasn't so bad. A good blast in front of the motel room A/C overnight dried everything up nicely.

I spent the last couple of days over on Kangaroo Island (note for future reference, spend at least 4+ days there) seeing Remarkable Rocks, smelly seals, Admirals Arches and not seeing the elusive platypus (the fact it's the wrong time of year, there's a drought on so there's little water for them to hunt in and it was the middle of the day when they're normally inactive didn't help, but hey!).

A brief sojourn in Adelaide was more than enough for me, so the next major port of call will be Melbourne. Just about everyone I've spoken to has raved about the place so hopefully it lives up to the hype.

Too easy!

I'm now on the other side of Nullarbor after a looonnnggggg 2 day ride. Not much to report and no dramas along the way :-)

Only about 600-700km to Adelaide now.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

I'm not sure if this will work but I've added a Google Maps link to the 'Links & Stuff' section that hopefully shows the rough route I've taken so far.

If that doesn't work, try this for size which should show the places visited so far.

Leaving Albany today but not sure of the end destination, either Ravensthorpe or Esperance (probably Ravensthorpe...)

Edit: In the end I got to Ravensthorpe and thought 'I've got a couple more hours of daylight left, it's only 180km to Esperance from here and things ain't so sore so what the hell I may as well carry on'. And so here I am in Esperance enjoying the seaside once more. A nice little 500km ride to get me in the groove for next week...

End of the road

I picked up the bike from the start of Albany Highway in Perth and now here I am at the other end of Albany Highway, 400km down the road, in Albany (surprisingly). With all my detours I managed to convert 400km into almost 2000km, but still... Don't know why that interests me but there we have it.

Edit: Knackered! 300km sightseeing tour today involving the Porongurup and Stirling ranges. It's also been the longest ride with the smallest amount of roadkill I've seen, which was nice. Even got to see a wild echidna roaming around the small bit of Porongurup I could get into (the rest was closed due to some recent bush fires). If you're ever considering popping to the town of Borden near there, don't. It seems to consist of a store and a pub and that's it as far as I could tell - there seemed to be a lot of houses around there though...

More trees and Danes everywhere

After a very nice relaxing ride I'm in Denmark where lucky none of the residents speak Danish. I made a brief stop off at the Valley of the Giants and braved the treetop walk 40m up in the air. If you don't like being on a boat, you might want to give it a miss as even in calm weather (like today) the platforms like to sway from side to side... :)

Tomorrow the hobo is making his way to Albany where I'll spend a couple of nights. It's by far the largest town (pop. ~30,000) around this neck of the woods so should keep me entertained a bit.

P.S. Thanks for nothing Colchester Utd!

Eastwards, ho!

I'm on the move once more after a few days in Margaret River. Today I headed down to Pemberton, 'the wondertown' according to the Lonely Planet - not sure what they were smoking when they wrote that section but it's a pleasant enough little town in the middle of Karri and Jarrah forests. Did a bit of dirt trail biking (seeing as that what the bike was designed to do in the first place) too. Let's just say I'm not gravels number one fan.

Tomorrow I'm off to Denmark to play in the Valley of the Giants before starting to think about the Nullarbor a bit more...

Pictures!

OK, I finally got off my lazy arse and posted some pictures over at my page on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thompsb/sets/72157600047197718/

At the moment it's just ones from Hong Kong but it's a start. And yes I know there's none of me, that's the idea... :)

On the road at last

Yesterday was the first day on the road, and also the first with all the bags packed onto the bike to add to the entertainment.

The rental company agreed to fit a small windshield to the bike to help lower the amount of wind buffeting, rain, bug splattering and kangaroos that might otherwise slap me in the face. The mechanics had a slight hiccup (in that the windshield hadn't arrived when I turned) so I started heading off south quite late in the day. I was hoping to make it down to Margaret River in one fell swoop but in the end I decided to stop for the night in Busselton. Quite a nice little town with a 2km jetty stretching out into the ocean.

This morning I finished off the journey to Margaret River and will spend a few nights here checking out the local sites (caves, beaches, wineries, lighthouses etc., not necessarily in that order...)

Take #2

A problem with the paperwork between the rental firm and the bike dealer meant no bike yesterday. Apparently it's all sorted out now and another trek into the suburbs of Perth is required. Fingers crossed...

The pool run came crashing to an end last night too. Bah!

Edit: I have a bike at last, hurrah! And for the pleasure my hands are now aching from all the clutching in downtown Perth. Can someone at UBS do a !whine for me please? Ta :)

Two wheels good, four wheels bad

Today is bike day, woo! Not quite sure what the luggage situation is on this thing but I'm praying I can strap my rucksack onto the sucker somehow...

Think I'll do a little bit of touring around the west coast of Oz before attempting the Nullarbor Plain (bonus points to the latin heads who can translate that to English) as it's basically 1000km with about 3 tiny stopovers in between. It's a busy highway along there anyway but I'd rather know roughly how many mpg's this thing can do before attempting it.

And yes, more pictures will be forthcoming. I have a shortlist, just need to upload them at a convenient time (and 12.36am isn't the time...)

I think I now have a motorbike... In the end I opted to rent the bike as it saves a fair amount of faffing around with registration requirements and trying to sell the thing at the end of the trip.
Hopefully I should get confirmation tomorrow and may have my mitts on it next weekend (or maybe sooner).

I haven't done much in Perth so far, unless you can count being ill as an activity, in which case I've been very busy! I've played a bit of footy with the guys at the hostel (and kept quiet I'm a Leeds supporter) and had a front row seat when two guys failed to head the ball and ended up nutting each other with a resounding 'thunk', swiftly followed by one of the guys being covered in blood due to a cut above his eye from the impact - lovely! 5 stitches and a beer or two later Marcel seems happy enough though. I also cycled down to Cottesloe beach last week - I had been aiming for 'City beach' but the signs dried up and next thing I knew I was at Cottesloe.

There's a bar directly under the hostel that has a free pool table on Thursdays, so I've played a game or 2 as you do. Undefeated so far! A couple of Aussies tried to stir things up by claiming all sorts of weird rules but a long double on the 8 ball kept them quiet for a bit ;-)

Looking forward to finally getting some wheels!

Bl**dy vodafone

For the second month in a row, Vodafone UK have cut me off... Happy happy, joy joy!

+61 415 622349 is now the number to use going forward!

Eagle-eyed readers may note the aussie number has changed... long story involving an inept backpacker thief (let's just say he ended up paying for the replacement)!

Hello Australia!

Hello Australia! First time here so looking forward to see what this little island has to offer.

Took me a while to get into Perth town centre from the airport. Apparently you need to jump into the middle of the road to make the airbus bus actually stop to pick you up - something the information displays failed to mention (grrr).

After 4 days of cool temperatures and cloud in Hong Kong, I'm back to 30c+ and sunny skies once more. Bliss! Perth seems like a nice place so far. Just done some wandering around the main town and down to Kings Park around sunset time so far. The lawns are very impressive there - if this was the UK someone would have pinched the turf there in a flash...

Feeling rather knackered at the moment. Has the jet lag (from a month ago) finally caught up with me? I'm sure a good helping of KFC will help realign the body clock ;-)

G'bye and G'day

It's my last day in Hong Kong today and will be jetting off to Perth later on. The bags already checked in so I don't have to lug it around for several more hours, thank [insert deity here]! (the flight's at 11.30pm...)

Had a fab time here, in no small part to Sel being around - a friendly face is always a welcome sight :-). Next time I'll have to make a trip over to Macau. I was planning on going today but the forecast is for rain and knowing me I'll probably miss the last return ferry and miss my plane.

I did all the touristy things: went on the Star Ferries a few times, saw the Temple St. night market and the 'Ladies' night market (basically a clothes market), the big buddha on Lantau island (when I visited there the cloud level was so low I could only see the outline), travelled on the 800m of escalators that run up to mid-level and traipsed along Lan Kwai Fong enjoying the throng of expats boozing it up. Oh, and I also went up to Peak Tower to see the non-view (it was misty/smoggy again) - the funicular tram ride up there is veeerryyyy steep, you can really feel yourself being pushed backwards into the seat.

I think I got loads of good piccies but until I can find somewhere to upload them you'll have to take my word for it. Why did I think it would be easy to find internet cafes here??

Staying in Mirador Mansion was an experience to say the least. The shower-toilet-sink combo is an interesting idea. I even got a hot shower on one of the mornings! Luckily, I didn't have a window as the view into the central area was, erm, interesting (think junkyard/rubbish dump).

P.S. Miracles upon miracles, Leeds win! And where's Rhys when you need to gloat over Wales being beaten by Italy?

Fancy meeting you here

I've arrived in Hong Kong, hurrah! Just a short sojourn until the big trip in Oz begins.

Luckily for me, Sel is in town wining, dining and generally schmoozing the socks off her clients over here. As I'd already found somewhere to eat in expat central (and LOUD expats at that), Sel met up with me there where we had a couple of drinks and caught up with all the latest gossip. In between we gate crashed a couple of private gallery viewings pretending we were supposed to be there (I think my clothes gave me away to be honest but noone booted us out). Who'd have thought a 10ftx10ft bright pink portrait could work, not me for one!

For those of you worried I've been living the high life too much, you'll be pleased to know I'm in proper backpacker digs now (Mirador Mansion, next door to the more infamous Chungking Mansion). God knows why I thought HK would be cheaper than London but as you can guess it ain't. Dividing by 15 to convert to UK prices is doing my head in too! :)

LUFC RIP

Davyma, it's half time and looking bad already. So if you had some witty taunt prepared, don't bother :)

Wilma, how much do I owe you? I may as well pay up now while we're still in the Championship! Ay carumba!

Well it amused me anyway

Passed this while bombing around the island.
Reminded me of the old Monty Python argument sketch :-)

Biggest trauma of the trip so far: have moved from a place with a hammock, to a place without hammock. Poor old me.

I knew those socks would come in useful

6 blisters later, a couple of lungfuls of seawater and I'm now allegedly competent enough to go diving without an instructor (ha!)

After a pretty painful (but still enjoyable) first day yesterday, my feet were a mess. Slightly too large flippers, seawater and lots of movement resulted in blister hell. I thought I was safe on the way back until we had to paddle to shore from the pickup boat. As everyone knows, salt on wounds friggin really huuurrrttttsssss. And yes I know I'm not going to get any sympathy :-) Consider this a lesson learnt.

With the aid of my entire supply on bandages used up (note: buy more...), a pair of trainer (sneakers for the US gang) socks and I'm ready to drown/dive again today. Muuuchhh better! Socks and diving are the way forward I feel.

Rather than waffle on about what was seen down there, I'll post some pics when I get my grubby mitts on them tomorrow. (Edit: luckily you can't see the stylish socks, but trust me they are there.)

Beer o'clock over here!

PS. Another fine Leeds loss, keep it up boys... *sigh*

No news is good news

Yes, I'm alive. SCUBA diving starts tomorrow so may not be come tomorrow evening...

No much to report recently other than many many Singhas have been drunk, I may have been drunk, and the sunsets seem to outdo each other every night.

Anyone know the speed limit on the Thai roads?

Sun, sea, sunsets and stars

Welcome to the beach! After picking up a 50-a-day habit from the streets of Bangkok (some of that to follow later on when I have more time) I've now arrived on Ko Lanta with it's fresh fresh air, and have been admiring all it has to offer. It helps to view sunset with a beer or two and some good music in the background I find :-)

When I can figure out how to post some flippin' pics, I will... I don't do I.T. it seems... (Edit: figured...)

Hello again stranger!

A slightly bizarre but nonetheless very enjoyable day.

I figured I'd have a bit of a cruise on the river boats today and started off by heading in the wrong direction (on purpose for a change). About a mile to the north of where I was staying is Victory Monument. As it wasn't mentioned in the guide book and was pretty close to home, I thought I'd head there and have a look. It's basically, a big monument, in the middle of a roundabout. Impressively big, I'll give it that. Anyway, my ulterior motive for going there was that there's a skytrain station that I can use to get down to Saphan Taksin where one of the river boat services stop at.

Foolish old me thought this would bypass some of the Bangkok smog, but nope, the river is pretty much like one of the roads. I eventually get off at the stop for Th. Khao San (where pretty much all the backpack crowd end up at some point) and amble along it. If you want to get pre-made dreadlocks woven into your hair, this is the place to go. A welcome chunk of chilled pineapple keeps me going.

Next up, Golden Mountain. With my inert sense of direction in top gear I get close but end up heading in slightly the wrong direction. At a junction, who should I meet but Mr Friendly Local (turns out he's called 'Sam', i think he said his real name was Somwat, but Sam works too) from yesterday. We have another chat and he points me in the right direction and ends up coming along too. At the Wat on Golden Mountain, he shows me how to use fortune sticks
(I get a number 9, same as my birthday, and a 'yes' for whether it's the right stick or not) and the results were quite interesting - I don't normally believe in this type of rubbish thing but the fortune was scarily accurate (Chris, I'll send you the details, you may find it funny :-).

After this we go on a whirlwind tour of other nearby Wats (complete with monk sweeping up petals while jabbering away on his mobile phone and another young monk being initiated - not the right word but you know what I mean...), Thai boxing gyms, backstreet market alleys complete with running commentary from Sam. I wish I had a GPS tracker to know where on earth we'd actually been to. He eventually deposits me on the main road close to home and I give him a bit of cash to get a beer or 3 (I'm sure that was his plan from the start but he was an amusing guy and gave me a different view of the sights).

Tomorrow I'm flying to Krabi in the south of Thailand and need to be heading to the airport by 8am, so it' an early'ish night for me.

Wat to do, wat to do...

Phew, it ain't half hot mum!

Jet lag seems to be working in my favour for a change and instead of crawling out of bed at the usual 11am or so, getting up at 8am seems remarkably straightforward. First things first, it's straight to the MBK shopping centre to pick up a camera lens (kinda tricky taking snaps of anything without this...). Nowhere in England had the one I was after but seeing as they actually make the stupid thing here it's a piece of pie to acquire a new bit of techno wizardry.

After a green tea frozen drink thing to wake me up a bit more I wandered down to the Royal palace and Wat Pho to see the impressive 40+ metre long Buddha. Not far from this area are streets lined with shops selling either lots of Chinese New Year related stuff (18th Feb) or Buddhas'R'Us stocked with golden Buddhas in every imaginable size and pose. On the way back to the accommodation, I chatted to a friendly local for a while who was recommending some more Wats to go visit - I was pretty much Buddha'ed out by this point (and the smog was starting to eat away at my lungs) so thanked him anyway and made my way home.

In the evening, I ventured down to Sinom, a bit south of central Bangkok, and found myself surrounded by lots of other pasty sun burnt farangs (Westerners) - glad to see I wasn't the only one! :-). A nice bit of spicy soup and a big beer to finish off the day!

Perfect timing

'Heavy snow causes transport chaos'

Edit: Other than the usual ridiculous check-in times these days, no probs. From 0C to 32C in one easy step!

"Will 60 pairs of socks be enough?"

I hate packing. I always forget something crucial. Doesn't help that I need to take 6 months worth of contact lenses... might be time to laser them eyes when I get back.

England is doing it's best to try and tempt me to stay with some unseasonally nice weather - nice try!

Passport? Check. Luggage? Check. Ticket?? Check!

...and a ticket has now been acquired and Feb 8th is the day! (assuming the B.A. strikes don't roll over to this day as well...)

The current plan of action is:

1. Bangkok (and southern Thailand's beaches)
   
2. Hong Kong
3. Perth
4. Overland to Sydney
5. Auckland
6. Santiago
7. Quito (and hopefully the Galapagos Islands)
8. Buenos Aires
9. Sao Paulo
10. and finally back to Blighty

Edit: Good old Royal Mail delivery service somehow manages to not gain anyones attention when there's 2 people in the house waiting for the ticket to arrive... (muppets).

Ben and the art of procrastination

As they say, better late than never, and after some world champion levels of procrastination I'm now ready to embark on a bit of wandering! A big thank you to all the guys at UBS who helped contribute to this rather splendid backpack that I'll be stuffing various things into:


All I need now is a ticket...