Fear. Not normally in my repertoire. But that´s what I felt as the plane swooped down upon smoggy, sprawling Mexico City. The most populous city in the world, home to 25 million people, 1 million cars, allegedly 1 million police ... bigger than the entire population of Australia. Finally, my travels south through Central and South America were no longer a pipe dream. But the fear is for an entirely different reason. You see, us Maynes girls are notoriously bad dancers and equally terrible at learning new languages. In this part of the world, respect is earned through salsa dancing and [View Full Entry]

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If you believe what you see on American television, in South Beach (aka SoBe) Miami the sun always shines. Beautiful people, fresh out of either solarium or plastic surgery, sip expensive cocktails in hip bars by an impossibly spectacular beach, before driving home along Ocean Drive in their harley or convertable (top down of course)... which may, or may not be stolen later. Sadly my only knowledge of Miami was the sum of 20-something years of American television. Quality programming including Miami Vice, Nip Tuck, CSI Miami, Miami Ink ... all reinforced most of, or all of the above stereot [View Full Entry]

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Canada was all about the white Christmas, old friends and Western comforts. Many a time during my asian travels I'd dreamt of quality red wine, a good steak, a toilet where you could flush the paper instead of putting it in a smelly rubbish bin. Imagined a bathroom with the winning trifecta - clean, hot water, locking door. Luxury! It took five flights from Goa before I reached Toronto - including a sweet, but brief, stopover with Donna and Scott in Singas. I'd left behind balmy Goan days well into the 30's - for the prospect of minus 20 degrees celsius [View Full Entry]

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India is all about the crazy, unpredictable and often breathtaking experience. About spectacular views of green rice paddies and palm trees from train windows one minute, then laundries and slums the next. People, always with smiles, unreserved laughter and unwavering good humour. About crazy and indecipherable systems of bribe and "making things happen". About bright, bold colours - saris, bangles, flowers, foods and spice. The aromas - some mouth-watering, many stomach-turning which assault the senses at every turn. The pollution-enhanced sunsets, the beautiful beaches, mountains and b [View Full Entry]

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Kolkota. City of joy. City of 15 million. Dirt under fingernails, toenails, up nostrils and in ears. Atmosphere like smog soup. Horns sound constantly and loudly. The smell of rotting garbage mingles with animal carcass and urine. Everywhere you look there are mangy dogs, cows, masses of people - working stalls, driving rickshaws, sleeping, begging, swarming. On trains a human crush grabs tightly to overhead bars leaving the air fresh with BO. A man tells me I'm sitting in the wrong section. I lose my hard fought seat to find its standing room only in the 'ladies' area. At least I'm [View Full Entry]

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Look at my photos from Providence at face value and you will see only bright smiles and happiness. Laughing children playing and learning in a mismatch of clothing and various states of dishevel (but they all seem to have shoes). A school facility that offers shelter, running water and even electricity. The classrooms have colourful tables and chairs, murals, blackboards, pencils, chalk. Food served at lunchtime, children playing marbles. But scratch the surface and discover some shocking truths - a smile can be deceiving. My volunteer experience in India is without question the best exp [View Full Entry]

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The thing is, there are no fat backpackers. Tans, dreadlocks, hardened torsos, the occasional symbolic tatt, chain smokers ... Khao San Road is seething with these characters. Fisherman's pants, leather necklaces with sharks tooth or similar, rip off brand name t-shirts, thongs (or flip flops ... depending where you're from!), headbands, masses of facial hair... Famously depicted in the movie 'the beach' - Khao San Rd is a heaving backpacker bottleneck. 24 hour debauchery. I bump into fellow travellers I've previously met along the way - in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Bright lights mak [View Full Entry]

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Singapore - the Canberra of SE Asia - was never going to be a tourist stop. The main agenda was to visit my dear friends from Oz - Donna and Scott - working there since June. It also provided a great opportunity to do laundry, restock supplies and relax in the comfort of a ritzy expat apartment with pool. Quite a departure from the backpacking world! After Vietnam, Singapore was very Western. Clean, green and pristine. It dealt me a terrible case of reverse culture shock. Money has come to Singapore making it a shopping mecca of glass and steel shopping [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam was all sunburn, mozzie bites and sand in my hair. I wasn’t convinced I’d have time to make it to Vietnam - but thanks to some heavy duty 12 hour slogs on buses and a time saving flight from Vientiane, Laos to Phnom Penh, Cambodia - I managed to muster up a respectable ten days. Enough for some long overdue beach action in the south with my good friend Germaine - covering off Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Mui Ne (the latter both coastal hotspots). After Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh City was a thriving metropolis. Shops operated from [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia and its seething mass of motorcycle bandits, filthy beggar children, horrific history and desperate poverty is a hard country to love. Until the gorgeous grinning children and resilience of it's Khmer survivors gets under your skin. Then there's Angkor Wat. No pictures or descriptions will ever do Angkor Wat's plethora of jaw dropping temples justice - it's pure and simple goose bump material. Arriving in Phnom Penh, it was immediately apparent that Cambodia is a far poorer country than its neighbours. Children with bare feet wander the backpacker district selling rip off [View Full Entry]

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