The Cape John and Claire Wood After setting foot in 15 different countries and having over 100 different overnight stops in 11 months we arrived in Cape Town for our final five nights. CT is nice , a fairly small but tidy downtown city area is surrounded by ocean and overshadowed by the massive table mountain. So called because of it's perfectly flat top. However, when you leave the CBD the city is then home to massive shanty towns, or informal settlements as they are known in Politically Correct language. These to [View Full Entry]

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PE , J-Bay , Stellenbosch John and Claire Wood We didn't stay in PE long, now this was not because we had a note from our mum, but because PE is the nickname for a place called Port Elizebeth. It didn't appeal to us so we arrived at 10:30 PM and left the following day at 7:30 on the BAz BUs. Truth be told it actually looked ok. It's quickly become obvious that we just don't have enough time here. The place is massive with loads of places to visit with an infinate amount of things to do. You need [View Full Entry]

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So . . . . we left Swaziland and drove south through kwazulu Natal (that's Zululand) straight through to Durban. Now we didn't see much of Durban so we can't say exactly what it was like but we didn't like the atmosphere. A big 'gt dirty city , we stayed in a nice hostel called the Hippo Hide in the nice subburbs. Having driven through the centre on route we didn't like the look of it and stayed away. Good storm came one night but that's about it. Seen enough big cities for the time being. So, having continued south [View Full Entry]

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After our Safari we headed to a town called Nelspruit with all of the same people. Had a Braai (thats a BBQ for us) which are very popular out here. Next day we started our Baz Bus ticket to Cape Town, this is a simple hop on hop off bus network in SA. No frills just A 2 B. First stop for us was the Royal Kingdom of Swaziland. A landlocked country in the North of South Africa, it's a really nice place with rolling hills and valleys with friendly locals, there is no history of apartheid here and there [View Full Entry]

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SA John and Claire Wood Arrived in Jo'burg and it dropped 20 degrees, brrrrr. Now a cool 12 celcius and a "light drizzle". Headed to our hostel for only one night as too many people say avoid Jo'Burg at all costs. Just a huge city with a huge crime rate. Our hostel was fine though in the 'burbs although the razor wire , electirc fences and signs advertising "Armed Responce" make you wonder if there is a war on. No evidence of any trouble though! Next day we got picked up a stupid o clock for our three night Safari [View Full Entry]

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We got a "share taxi" to Sihanoukeville , now the word "share" was the operative word. There was nine of us in that taxi , Four Cambodian adults, three children and us. To add to the party atmosphere the car reeked of Durians (a stinky SE asian fruit), fortunately we made the 2 hour journey in only 75 minutes through the drivers cunning use of the accelerator and horn. As we arrived in Sihanoukeville the poor car had had enough and broke down in cloud of steam and smoke. At least we made it. Now you don't associate Cambodia with [View Full Entry]

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Phnom Penn bus station takes chaos to a whole new level, we went there to get our bus out of town and were met with bedlem from people, motos, cyclos, buses and taxis all competing for a tiny piece of road. A man with a megaphone and a bloke with a whistle, try, without hope, to organise things. Somehow, only one hour late we managed to escape the city. We were held up on route by a truck that lost a wheel after it hit a bridge. No emergency services here so you just wait until the locals sort things [View Full Entry]

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The Cambodian capital is an interesting place to spend a few nights. Surprise surprise the roads to get to Phnom Penn were very good compared with our last journey although we found ourselves on the much feared local Karaoke bus , you can use your imagination there. Most travelers are fiercely divided about whether to stay at Phnom Penn's Lakeside or the Riverside. Having opted to go with the former we were soon a bit disappointed. The lake itself is really polluted and judging from the smell this is , amongst other things, from the drainage from the guest houses [View Full Entry]

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We got into Cambodia on one of the cheap bus trips from Bangkok (after 2 uneventful nights back in Bangkok), 250 B right the way to Siem Reap. The journey until the Cambodian border was fine, then after a stifling trudge / wait through customs and after being overcharged for our Visa (standard unfortunately) we were shown to the bus of death , ancient and in awful condition, at least we had a bit of room though as there was no luggage compartment to put our bags. We set off and this bus took us to another bus , which [View Full Entry]

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Ko Tao is more like the idylic - white sand - clear waters - Thai island retreat we had picured. Its a tiny little island north of Ko Samui and its famous for snorkelling and scuba diving due to the clear waters and massive variety of marine life nearby. We got ourselves a hut a few hundred yards from the beach for 300 B (5 quid) a night at the Silver Sand Resort, again very cheap for these islands. So cheap it makes it hard to complain about the infestation of mosquitos, the holes in the mozzy net and our [View Full Entry]

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