We flew into Bangkok from Singapore and this was our first real taste of South east Asia. We decided to go to the Khao San road because this is one of the cheapest and most popular places to eat and find accommodation. Khao San road is some people's worst nightmare but for us it was very interesting. You could walk up the street and be disgusted and entertained. There is always something new and shocking and it is a backpacker's Mecca. We stayed here trying to find our feet in Thailand and trying to map out a route. It didn't take [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another bus was required for our departure from Vietnam and entry to Cambodia. We arrived into Phnom Penh a feeling a little uneasy because of what we heard about tourist theft and because time was not necessarily on our side we knew that this country would be more of a flying visit compared to most of the others. After one night in Phnom Penh we got a bus to Siem Reap. The poverty of the country struck us and its people are clearly still recovering from its tragic recent history The journey to Siem Reap was an interesting one. Within 10 [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our next stop on the south east Asian leg was Vietnam! We arrived into the capital city, Hanoi. Our experiences here were less than positive with the locals. It seemed that the term "keeping your wits about you" developed here and we tried to avoid being taken advantage of on more than one ocassion. We also found it slightly more challenging to get a taste for the local food than in some other countries. In fact, on our first night we ate pizza, a cardinal sin for those trying to get into the cultural and culinary nuances of each of our [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having left Australia, we spent two nights in Singapore and then moved into Thailand. After 10 ten days in the northern part (blog to follow), we made our way into Laos. Our first stop was the country's capital, Vientiane. What first struck us was the French connection and as soon as we got off the bus there were people offering us baguettes. They were short of having a string of onions around their neck. Formerly under French control, Laos has plenty of Gallic flair and is a lot more laid back than the two previous south east Asian countries we had [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well here we are again. After a long recess(ion) we're back and full of the joys of Spring! Having spent a fantastic month making our way around New Zealand we jumped across the drink to see what their bigger neighbour and rival had to offer. It turns out there's quite a lot and at the end of our time here we see that we'd need considerably longer and a lot more cash to see it all. We arrived into Melbourne and checked into a hostel in the area of St Kilda. Firstly we were surprised by the amount of Irish in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well it's been a while but here's another installment of our journey around the globe Since our last episode, we have left the vibrant and seductive shores of Latin America, traversed the Pacific Ocean and lost a day of our lives in the process thanks to the complex policies of crossing the international dateline. The 11th of February 2009 is a day that did not exist in our lives. We arrived into Auckland from Santiago, Chile on the 12th February. This was a big change having spoken mostly Spanish for the past 5 and a half months and it took a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having gotten a good sense of what Argentina had to offer from Buenos Aires we left the capital and headed a little north west, bound for the city of Cordoba. We knew it was the home of the famous Ernesto 'Che´ Guevarra and a few other big Latino names so we figured it´d be worth the trip, if only for a few days to see what the place was about. When we arrived in the hostel we were asked "Why Cordoba?" and the unfortunate thing about it was these were locals... It soon became apparent why they put the question to [View Full Entry]

---

---

After crossing the border and saying goodbye to our friend, Brazil, we entered Argentina via the town of Puerto Iguaçu. This is the stop-go spot all tourists will spend at least one night in before seeing the national park´s famous waterfalls. The falls border both Argentina and Brazil but from what we heard the Argentine side was the one to see if you could only see one side. We don´t know whether this is true or not as we only saw one side but either way it was fantastic. When we arrived into the town the first thing to hit us [View Full Entry]

---

---

After we left Rio we took a hop, skip and jump a few hours down the road to a town called Paraty. Upon arrival we realised that our time in Rio had taken its toll and our mental calendars were a bit sideways. We got the dates wrong and we weren´t actually booked into the hostel. With it being the busiest time of the year we were told that there was no room and they offered to allow us sleep on the floor of the balcony. What with all those scourges of mosquitos in the area this would´ve been a bad [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having flown to Sao Paolo from Santa Cruz in Bolivia we made our way to the infamous Rio de Janeiro by bus. On the bus we were given what we can only liken to a party bag containing sweets, crackers and a little bottle reminiscent of the wee vessels of Cadet coke we would guzzle as nippers. We arrived in Rio on the 23rd December and this would be the longest we have stayed in one place since studying Spanish in Guatemala. It was nice to finally have somewhere to set up camp for more than just a few days. Our [View Full Entry]

---

---