Why indeed? I mean, does anyone really know anything about Uruguay? All I knew was that it is in South America, rhymes with Paraguay and that its football team seems to show up in the World Cup finals more often than the Scottish team manages. The main reason we ended up in Uruguay was cost. We arrived in Buenos Aires following a thirteen hour flight from Sydney and spent a few days jet-lagged out of our minds, trying to decide how to spend the next month. Of all the destinations in (realistic) travelling distance from Buenos Aires, Uruguay was by far [View Full Entry]

---

---

Byron Bay We left Surfer´s Paradise behind, in the hope that we could also leave the constant rain behind. However, arriving in Byron Bay late at night, we were resigned to the torrential rain bouncing off the pavements. Following an argument between me and the guy on reception at the hostel (I don´t understand why they need to keep passports overnight the first night, to simply jot down the information and hand them back the following morning. So there.) we were shown to our room which had a terrifying spider dangling from the window. Fortunately on the other side of the [View Full Entry]

---

---

...you always take the weather with you. According to Crowded House at least. And they should know, being Australian. Before I start moaning about the weather (and I should point out that we did actually enjoy ourselves despite the rain) I should say that I have had a bit of an incident involving my photos. Basically all my pictures from Cairns up to and including Fraser Island have been wiped from my memory card and - unhelpfully - seem to have disappeared from a DVD. For anyone who is thick about this sort of technology like me, this means I don´t [View Full Entry]

---

---

The heading is particularly appropriate, considering the recent disasters befalling the northern and southern parts of Australia. It seems bizarre that some Australians were up to their necks in floodwater, while at the same time others were frantically attempting to escape the bushfires. Fortunately we left Victoria a few days before the fires broke out. As we left, the temperature had creeped up to 44 degrees and the wind was rising fairly dramatically. It´s easy to see how quickly a fire could spread in those conditions. Unfortunately for us, we flew from Victoria to Cairns in Northe [View Full Entry]

---

---

Happy (belated) New Year. I can't believe it's nearly February. Incredibly, I've been in Melbourne for over 4 months. I'll rewind to September when I managed to get a flight from Singapore to Melbourne at short notice. Bear in mind I hadn't experienced a day cooler than 35 degrees for months. I staggered off the plane at around 4:30am, collected my luggage, left the building and almost had a heart attack. It was absolutely freezing: I could even see my breath. Everyone round me wore coats, scarves, gloves and hats. I was dressed in a t-shirt and cropped trousers. I only [View Full Entry]

---

---

I realise the heading is a bit melodramatic, but it's pretty much the truth. Unfortunately for people feeling obliged to read this entry I'm over the speechlessness and now able to ramble on for what will probably be far too long. Also, I don't know why but I've uploaded an obscene amount of photographs. So. I left off the last time in Vietnam, with Ross having headed for Australia (apparently via a night involving Singapore Slings in Raffles Hotel in Singapore - how nice for some). Anyway, people can't seem to steer clear of Robin Williams as soon as they hear [View Full Entry]

---

---

We continued to travel north through China towards Beijing. We stopped off at two fairly non-descript cities, Hangzhou and Nanjing and went to the "most beautiful mountains in China" at Huang Shan. Hangzhou did have a nice lake, ingeniously called the "West Lake", which allowed for nice photos of weeping willows and boats. Nothing of any significance occurred in Nanjing, except perhaps for Ross turning up to meet me in a cafe with - depending on your viewpoint - blonde / gold / fluorescent yellow hair. So far he's been called Oor Wullie, Debbie (as in Harry), one half of the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Even though we had to get up at the unearthly hour of 3am to catch our flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong, I was so relieved to be leaving for somewhere we could walk down the street without being harrassed or horrified that I was almost upbeat. It was Ross' 28th birthday, meaning he was more than just upbeat, he was positively excited. At 3am. The flight was uneventful, other than me surreptitiously taking photos out the plane window. Is this allowed? I've never seen anyone do it before. I was slightly paranoid my camera would somehow interfere with the workings [View Full Entry]

---

---

I left off the last time in Rajasthan, full of a cold (which, incidentally, I still have slightly - I have an irritating cough which probably annoys others (Ross) more than me). Anyway, I had to cram all my sightseeing into one day after spending the previous two days lying in a flu-ish stupor in a room which was like a sauna most of the time. Every time it rains in Jaisalmer the electricity goes off, which isn't very helpful during the monsoon. The locals seem to find it hilarious. I didn't. Electricity going off means no air conditioning, no ceiling [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we are still in India one month on. It's been an interesting month. For those of you who haven't been bored with the story by email, I was in an accident (sounds very dramatic) not long after I published the last blog. I can make the accident sound glamorous or boring - I'll opt for the latter but feel free to throw in some adjectives of your own. Anyway, I was basically stepping out the back of a car, the driver inexplicably (or perhaps explicably (is that even a word?) given he's an 18 year old local) took off and [View Full Entry]

---

---