Andy_C
Andrew Carrington Joined: October 27th 2006
Logged in: May 27th 2008
Logged in: May 27th 2008
Travel Blog Posts
Jason and kids
USA Seattle/Bremerton When I left you last I had just endured US immigrations and eventually arrived safely in Seattle airport where Bob and Carol (my host parents from when I lived in America for 6 months aged 18) were waiting. It was really lovely to see them again. Despite being incredibly tired (having not really slept the previous night) I managed to stay awake a couple more hours to catch up and have some dinner. Actually felt strange eating the type of food I am used to at home (potatoes, meat, gravy etc) having survived on Tacos for the previous week and before that a whole variety of unusual foods. Also despite Mexico being a developed country the US felt like a whole different world altogether. It initially felt strange being able to do normal things ... read more
Super Chivos
Guatemala My last night in Guatemala was spent watching the Super Chivos (Xela) play football in a classico (derby match). It was a pretty good night, met up with another guy from the treck to Todos Santos (Michael) and headed out for some dinner before the footie followed by a convincing win from Xela. At the game we met a couple of others from the Todos Santos treck and despite a city wide alcohol ban (due to it being election day) managed to find a bar after the game that let us in for a lock in (one of the things I like about Xela). It was the same bar where Katie and I previously enjoyed Sangria on the roof at 5am and again it was a very cool with a few more people we knew ... read more
Sunset first day Utilia
Gautemala At the end of the last blog I was approaching the end of my time at Lago Atitlan but had extended my stay for a couple of day haviong found a nice quiet hostel to relax in. My plan to move to the quiet town of Jaibalito on Lago Atitlan worked quite well for the first two days and I managed to get a little Spanish done as well as visiting a few more villages around the lake either on bike or by foot. On the Friday however I met up with some friends from La Iguanas In Santa Cruz and we headed up on bus to Solata for one of the biggest markets in Guatemala. It was a fantastic walk back (all downhill) and the market itself was brilliant. Nearly everyone including the guys ... read more
San Jose street
Costa Rica Costa Rica was never on our original plans as somewhere that we intended to visit but when it came to booking our flight from Lima to Guatemala City the cheapest option was routed through San Jose. So we thought why not, and on the spur of the moment decided to pay the extra 20GBP odd in taxes and stop in for three nights. San Jose is the capital and largest city in Costa Rica (which itself is a pretty small country c.4.5m people). We stayed in an area called San Yoses which is a pretty student suberb and we didnt venture outside of the capital given our limited time. Instead we spent a fair amount of time relaxing around the hostel (free movies and pool) and wandering around the city. The highlights of the ... read more
Strange statue
Southern Chile Santiago After a long flight from Auckland we landed in Santiago, Chile. Fraser did not sleep at all on the plane, largely due to the fact that he had one of the largest men in the world in the seat next to him - his belly and arm were partly in Fraser's seat and his elbow was digging into his ribs. We think he should have paid for a couple of seats. Anyway, we negotiated a taxi from the airport (paying well over the odds but knackered so went with it) to Hostal de Sammy, along with an Irish lad, Kenny, who we met at the airport. Since leaving Ireland, Kenny has been mugged in Thailand and been in two car crashes in New Zealand - his trip met another disaster on our second ... read more
Wellington
New Zealand - North Island Wellington We got a ferry up from the South Island to Wellington and had a few beverages on the ferry whilst playing cards, so when we arrived we were quite keen on a night out. We stayed at a really nice YHA and were lucky in that, as there were 5 or us (the three of us plus Hazel and Cathi from the Kiwi experience) they upgraded us to private ensuite dorm for just the five of us. This was pretty nice for a change as it meant your sleep wasn't frequently interrupted by people going out or coming in as we were doing pretty much the same thing. We didn't actually get up to a lot in Wellington - we had a night out at the start to watch ... read more
Kiwi Route
New Zealand Hey all hope all is well at home. Here is the latest installment of our RTW trip. We have now been in NZ for a while. The map above shows the route we are taking around NZ. We are using the Kiwi Experience bus which is a backpacker bus that loops around the two islands of NZ. The bus has a few free excursions / walks and also shows you a few places you might not otherwise see. You can hop on and off at the different stops providing you make sure you are booked on one of the next buses. We started in the South Island from Christchurch and looped up around the Island stopping at Kaikoura, Nelson, Westport, Lake Mahinapua, Franz Joseph, Wanaka, Queenstown and then both Christchurch and Kaikoura again for ... read more
Mad fan
Australia (continued) Having stayed longer than expected in Byron we skipped out Surfers Paradise and Noosa. We had heard mixed reports and weren't too dissapointed to have skipped Surfers when we drove through it on the way to Brisbane. Didn't look a touch on Byron. Brisbane As the bus pulled into Brisbane, I wouldn't say it was an aesthetically pleasing city: brick skyrise; crane; brick skyrise; crane....... Checked into our hostel and walked around much of central Brisbane in around an hour. Andy noticed there was a rugby match on at the Suncorp Stadium between the Queensland Reds and the Sydney Sharks. We had a bargain 6 dollar steak at the hostel bar then headed down the stadium to watch Sydney pummel the Reds by about 50 points to 16. Really nice stadium and glad we ... read more
Pefume River in Hue
Vietnam Hue Ok - it's been a while since the last update so prepare yourselves for a large instalment with around 100 photos! So, last time we left you, we were heading off on a 14 hour bus ride to Hue. This was surprisingly unpainful for all, and even Andy and Fraser managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Arriving in Hue before lunch we did the now customery search for a guest house. We made our way to the area known as backpacker alley and looked at a few rooms before being persuaded by a friendly local to stay in his family's hotel (despite it having a purely vegetarian restaurant). All turned out pretty well as it was a bargain room ($5 for a triple - possibly our cheapest yet) and was an incredibly ... read more
Condom Santa
So the last update was from Ko Pha Ngan and since then the group has shrunk back down to the original three. This coincided with a dramatic drop in quality of both accommodation and daily spend. From Ko Pha Ngan the route has been bus up to Bangkok (with a side trip to Kanchanburi) followed by Vientiane (Laos capital), Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. Several very long, incredibly scenic and at times incredibly uncomfortable bus journeys were taken. Marie and Fraser then took a short romantic break from Andy (possibly to avoid the snoring) taking a different route to the eventual destination (Hanoi). So what have we seen and done since leaving the Thai islands? (As with the previous entry, there are a number of photos which have fallen onto extra pages so you will need ... read more
