Our minibus from Chiang Mai took us to the border crossing at Chiang Kong in Thailand. This bus journey was the first of many to make us feel very sick due to the winding roads and determined (ie mad) drivers. Crossing into Laos was quite simple. A quick stamp out of Thailand, followed by a 2 minute ride across the river and a $40 visa and 20 baht 'overtime' fee by the Laos Immigration officials, we had arrived into Huay Xai. We were introduced to the People's Democratic Republic of Laos by our guide, who called himself 'Mr Information', which we [View Full Entry]

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Arriving into Bangkok's prestgious new Suviboomboom airport, we were impressed with the external appearance. Inside though, its a big concrete and steel mess, reminiscent of the old Don Muang airport. Combine this with the recent news that the freshly laid runway tarmac is cracking up and they are having to re-open Don Muang once again, you get a taste of the Thai government's slap-dash approach to its infrasctructure. Immigration Officers were by far the most unfriendliest we have ever met. Thailand recently changed its entry rules for tourists and since October 2006 it now heavily restricts [View Full Entry]

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Note that this blog is a lengthy one as we have done one big blog to cover the whole of our time in the Philippines! Our transit time in Singapore was 8 hours, this was because we were too cheap to pay for a room in Singapore for this little time! So we slept on the seats of Singapore's budget terminal, with bright flourescent lights and piped plinky-plink music versions of popular songs. Wandering around airport terminals late at night and taking a wrong turn past offices which had 'Navigational Control Centre' posted on them was probably not the best idea! [View Full Entry]

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After a brief 24 hours post christmas shopping spree in Singapore, we headed off to Bali. Let us say right from the start so there is no ambiguity, that Indonesia is very very cheap compared to most other Asian countries we have visited (expensive Thailand springs to mind!). As a guide prices of beer, food, accommodation, massages etc were approximately 60% cheaper than Thailand. It's the sort of place that immediately made us wonder why other places in South East Asia are expensive by comparison. For example, one large Bintang beer cost 60p, one plate of Nasi Goreng (chicken fried rice) [View Full Entry]

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Our Qantas flight got us to Christchurch very quickly, so quick in fact it must have been why our 3 hour lecture on where we should visit on the South island by campervan Bob (our racist campervan supplier) seemed to go so slowly. Finally escaping campervan Bob and with half of New Zealands rainforest in the form of tourist pamphlets, we headed to the French township of Akaroa, on the Banks peninsula, an hours drive east of Christchurch. It was here that Donna bent Neil's arm into swimming with dolphins by saying things like 'Its something I always wanted to do!' [View Full Entry]

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Our Cata bus journey from Mendoza got us into Santiago with just enough time and a quick whisk through the streets of Santiago on the airport bus was enough to make us realise that it was way out of our budget range. We were very glad we only stayed in Chile for 9 hours! Can we also mention that Chile has the most anal border restrictions ever, this seemed aimed at annoying the Argentines because they have better wine and fruit! As we write this blog we are swatting sand flies whilst drinking our Argentine Chablis in a matchbox size campervan...more [View Full Entry]

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After a cold, cold wait in Tupiza, sitting near the train station with our 3 quid blanket wrapped around us (acquired in La Paz from Blanket Man) like some sort of homeless people, our bus (sorry, tin can on 4 wheels) arrived at 4am to take us to Villazon, The Bolivian-Argentine border. Note to other travellers when booking tickets at the bus station, try and view the buses on the forecourt first before buying the tickets to ensure that a 1950´s rust bucket piece of shit death trap of a bus doesn´t turn up to take you to your destination! On [View Full Entry]

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Note that the pics for this blog entry go on for 3 pages! Uyuni and the tour of the Salar Deciding on our next Bolivian detsination wasn´t an easy task. We had originally booked bus tickets to Potosi to visit the silver mines but given Donna´s continuing toilet issues we decided that the confined conditions of mining tunnels would not be the best place to be if you suddenly needed the toilet, especially considering there may be so much methane down there already. So for these reasons we changed our bus ticket to go straight to Uyuni instead and had to [View Full Entry]

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Copacabana, Bolivia On leaving Cusco it was apparant that the squitz were not going to abandon us and for the 14 hour bus ride to Copacabana in Bolivia, immodium was again our friend and we now own a proportion of the company which makes the tablets! The bus journey was difficult to say the least. Not only was it one of the most likely journeys to get your bag stolen on, but driving high through the Andes we encountered an extreme thunder and lightening storm. We were sat at the very front of the bus and had a birds eye view [View Full Entry]

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As you have probably noticed we are in deepest darkest Peru with no sign yet of Paddington Bear. This is quite a long blog entry so bear in mind that it has two pages in content. Our flight from Buenos Aires was an experience, Neil, thinking it was a 3 hours flight because Donna had forgotten about the 2 hours time difference, was shocked at the length of the flight (Donna is officially no good with directions, time differences or flight times!). Our flight was with TACA and this airline has the grumpiest, dodgiest cabin crew we have ever come across [View Full Entry]

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