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Andy Morris/Clare Chamberlain
Welcome to our blog. After a long and hard month off, we are almost ready to leave. Andy and Clare
We don't know how often we will update this blog, but we hope to add pictures every now and then to show you what we have been up to.
Here is our current itinerary; mainly only flights at this stage and very general ideas on what we might be doing - but we will try and update it when we know more. Please come and meet us if you have the urge!
10th July - fly from Heathrow to Quito (Ecuador)
Ecuador and Northern Peru
8th August - fly from Lima (Peru) to Cusco (Peru)
Machu Picchu, the Amazon basin, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, Colca Canyon and Northern Chile
20th Sept - fly from Santiago (Chile) to Rio (Brazil)
In and around Rio
22nd Sept - fly from Rio (Brazil) to Iguassa (Brazil)
Iguassa falls
26th Sept - fly from Iguazu (Argentina) to Beunos Aires (Argentina)
Argentina and Chile - Patagonia etc.
26th Nov - fly from Santiago (Chile) to Auckland (New Zealand)
New Zealand - north then south island
23 Jan - fly from Christchurch to Perth
and a bit of an update now we have arrived in Asia:
9 - 12 March: Singapore
13 - 26 March: Malaysian Borneo Sabah
26 - 11 April: Peninsula Malaysia (KL, East coast and the cameron highlands)
11 - 18 April: Ko Lanta, Thailand (the big 3 0!)
18 - 26 April: Making way to Chiang Mai by land
26 for a week or so: Chiang Mai and around with Ruth and Marie
Start May: Fly to Hanoi from Bangkok
May - July 8: Down coastal Vietnam, into Cambodia, Laos and back into Thailand (still figuring our route out!)
8 July: London calling
Travel Blog Posts
July 8th 2008
So after 12 months of travelling we are now back in Britain. We have had a fantastic year, far better than we could ever have imagined. Argentina and New Zealand have been our favourite spots but we can honestly say that we have enjoyed all 14 countries that we have visited. Thank you to everyone for reading the blog and a special thank you to those old friends and new ones who we have spent time with along the way. Our last week travelling was spent relaxing in Chiang Mai, exploring the old capital of Ayutthaya and shopping in Bangkok. Not that it is straight back to reality. The next 3 weeks will be spend travelling round Britain - seeing family and friends, going to weddings and playing cricket. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon. You've ... read more
July 2nd 2008
We have got well into the Laos way of life in the past couple of weeks, relaxing and appreciating all the different things around us. You couldn't describe anything we have seen as spectacular but our time here has definitely been some of the best time we have spent in SE Asia. Despite all the tourists, the people are very welcoming and generally the place definitely has a certain charm we haven't found elsewhere. That said, Vang Vieng wasn't too great. The rainy season arrived, and it rained non stop for a few days, but when it cleared we had beautiful views from our hotel over Kaarst scenery and made our way into the countryside on a long walk. The town itself I think I might almost describe as revolting - we'd been warned it had ... read more
June 15th 2008
Keen observers will spot that a river features prominently in many of this blogs photos. It is the mighty Mekong which defines this part of the world acting as a border, the setting for virtually all settlements, a livelihood, a food source and until very recently the only real means of transportation. The river flows slowly and life moves at the same speed. Relaxing is definitely the order of the day around here. After Siem Reap; Kratie was our first stop. A sleepy Cambodian river town it is famous for its rare Irrawaddy river dolphins (which we spotted on a boat trip) and its amazing sunsets (which cloud cover meant were only half in evidence). Kratie was just a brief stop before it was full speed to the Cambodia Laos border - we successfully negotiated one ... read more
June 1st 2008
Hot. Very Hot. Boiling infact. That would have to be the first thing that comes to mind to describe our past ten days in Cambodia. Bring on the rainy season, which is apparently just days away! Something happened to raise the already-high temperature as we took a boat from Chau Doc on the Mekong Delta (a very pleasant, oddly un-touristy spot) to cross the border into Cambodia, arriving in Phnom Penh right in the midday heat. We spent 6 days in the Capital, part of the time sorting out our visas for the next bit of the trip. Stepping off the boat, I was struck straight away by how calm and peaceful PP seemed compared to towns in Vietnam. For a capital city with over a million inhabitants, the quiet was almost alarming. Hawkers were still ... read more
May 20th 2008
Once Ruth and Marie had headed home (and taken the sun with them) we spent the day looking in the 'posh' area of Hanoi looking at the Temple of Literature and Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (but not the embalmed man himself). Then it was on the Reunification Express - a 30 hour train journey linking Hanoi and what the guide books call Ho Chi Minh and everyone else calls Saigon. Fortunately we split this journey into four; stopping for a few days at Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang along the way. As mentioned the good weather left with Ruth and Marie but luckily that has not mattered too much as this part of Vietnam is mainly about architecture and eating! Hue was the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945 and the home of the ... read more
May 8th 2008
Since our last blog we seem to have crammed a fair bit in, thanks in part to the arrival of Ruth and Marie on a two week holiday, who have seemingly had more energy than us! We spent a few days in Chiang Mai, which proved to be really relaxing. We walked around touring some beautiful temples and a fair share of markets - Andy has thoroughly been enjoying shopping with three girls! We also took part in a cookery course on an organic farm just outside the city - it was excellent, particularly when we watched another participant muck up when he added fish sauce to his sweet banana pudding - our teacher found this hilarious, and made me feel a bit better when I couldn't quite get the hang of making a perfect spring ... read more
April 25th 2008
Epic journeys both begin and end this blog... To get from the Cameron Highlands to Ko Lanta we needed 2 buses, a train, a plane, a mini-bus, 2 boats and a jeep. Once there it was well worth it though as we stepped our relaxing up to a new level with a week in two fantastic resorts on this laid back Thai island. With nothing to do other than swim in the 'bath water warm' pool and stroll along the beach we indulged in plenty of reading, Thai massages, Thai food and general lazing about. The main reason for coming here was to celebrate Clare's 30th birthday and by happy coincidence it was also Songkhran or Thai New Year, so although I'd like to claim I laid on the fireworks, waterfights (that are an integral part ... read more
April 9th 2008
We have spent the past 2 weeks on mainland Malaysia and have had a very enjoyable time. It is one of the first countries we've been to where you don't have to travel too far to see several different landscapes. The people have been incredibly friendly too. We spent a few days in KL, visiting the tourist sites in the sweltering heat, catching up with things we always seem to do in big cities (shopping) and seeing a friend who we both used to work with back in the evil days of TNS. Next, we took a bus to Kuala Lipis, towards the interior of the country, with the aim of catching the jungle train the next day. The cab driver in KL was convinced we were a bit lacking, assuring us there was nothing to ... read more
March 27th 2008
The past fortnight has seen us tasting (often literally) our first experiences of Asia. After easing our way in with three days in Singapore - a high-rise, shopping mall blend of East and West, we flew to Sabah part of Malaysian Borneo. We spent a few days in the WW2 destroyed capital, Kota Kinabalu, and a couple on the South China Sea before the main event - our attempt to conquer SE Asia's highest peak, Mt Kinabalu. The walk is a deceptively easy sounding 8.2KM with a 2,250m ascent tackled over 2 days. On day one we met our guide at 8am and hiked 6 of the KMs and 1,600m of the up to the mountain refuge of Laban Rata. It was hard work but we knew that the really tough part was yet to come. ... read more
March 8th 2008
8 months in the southern hemisphere draws to a close tomorrow and we find ourselves asking where on earth has it gone? It has simply flown. We've had an enjoyable past couple of weeks and, generally speaking, the sun has finally come out in Australia. I said generally though - having arrived in Hobart in 30+ degree heat, there was snow on the hills when we left! Shortly after our last blog, we picked up a campervan and hit the twisty tassie roads for 5 days of outdoor adventure in some of australia's most beautiful country. The weather let us down a bit though as we huddled around the electric heater in the van, rather than lazing outside under the stars we had planned. Tasmania was beautiful though - definitely my top spot in Australia. And ... read more
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