On the surface, Aguas Calientes is wholly forgettable. No one ever chooses to stay here. It’s an inconvenient necessity. Now known as Machu Picchu Pueblo, it is no more than a holding tank and transfer point for the ruins above. There are three types of people in Aguas Calientes: residents who exclusively live off tourists, tourists who are going o Machu Picchu, or tourists who have been and are awaiting the train to leave. The formula is rather simple…No Machu Picchu = No Aguas Calientes. Without the ruins, this community would turn into a Nevada ghost town in the matter of [View Full Entry]

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Last 2 weeks have been busy and, in consequence, have gone fast!: We went to a baseball game between Doosan Bears and LG Twins. We supported the Bears... just because it was the home team; it was a great evening, except for the humidity which was nearly unbearable, I was glad I brought my Spanish hand fan with me, I made good use of it!. Also to a "Korean etiquette workshop", where we could dress up with the hanbok, the traditional Korean outfit; funny enough, they gave me one with the Spanish flag colours on it!. Ben and I skipped a [View Full Entry]

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And the Kyrgyz are one of those people. They really love their horses and a lot of their lives revolve around them. So I decided to find out what all the fuss was about, and in order to do so left with Ricky and Danielle for Kochkor from where we were going to book a horse trek to lake Song Kol. Before getting that far we made a pit stop in Kadji Sai, where we stayed with an eagle hunter. Eagles of course are not at all related to horses, though this one was big enough to eat a small one. [View Full Entry]

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It began rather ominously. We slept straight through our alarm and wouldn’t have made our flight if it wasn’t for our persistent taxi driver. On arrival in Tallinn we managed to get out more money than we meant to and then make my card mysteriously disappear. We had to wait at the airport and buy cokes in order to get change for the bus ride into the city centre and then we walked in the completely wrong direction looking for our hotel on the edge of Tallinn’s old town. We were hoping this wouldn't be an indictation of things to come. [View Full Entry]

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Sounds exciting doesn't it? Well in fact the vast majority of the 54-hour journey mentioned in the title was made lying down. I saw a hell of a lot of Kazakhstan, but 99% of it was through a train window. In fact, the only times when I was not seeing Kazakhstan or lying down were when I was tottering down the aisle to fill up my mug from the samovar, a huge, ancient, silver tea pot which the carriage attendant kept alight by snapping pieces of wood and throwing them inside every now and then. I cannot comment on the scenery [View Full Entry]

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Touchdown. South India. Summer heat and monsoon rain. We were excited to back back. If we'd known what was in store, we might been more apprehensive. Getting out of the airport was easy. It was raining when we got outside though and rickshaw negotiations (we were offered a series of random prices ranging from 150 to 400 - we settled on 100) were a rather damp affair, as was the ride through town to the train station. The correct train was located and beds were appropriated without much fuss and we headed back to the platform for some snacks. An old [View Full Entry]

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Route map:http://www.bikemap.net/route/586134 Day 3 started with an amazing dawn looking over towards the low hills on the south of the Crinan Canal, steeped in some eery low clouds. 3rd day fatigue was setting in, especially as clean clothes were wearing thin, but onwards we rode. Our first destination was out north along the flat flood plain to Kilmartin. There we breakfasted proper (did we have bacon rolls?) at the church cafe, and had a nice wander around the churchyard, admiring some very old Celtic tombstones. From Kilmartin the route wended its way uphill to the start of Loch Awe. Loch Awe [View Full Entry]

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