Lachlan and Brigid
Lachlan: 28 years old, born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. Moved to the USA in April 2002 'for' Brigid, who is now my wife of almost 2 years. Sporty, goofy scientist, about to quit my job in genetics to travel the world for 10 months. LabratsBreakout
Likes: food, beer, wine and feather duvets
Dislikes: shopping, pain, passive aggressive VISA/immigration people
Interesting fact: If anyone asks, I am not 'the brain'
Brigid: yeah, ok, now 29 years old, born and raised in St. Louis, MO (USA), home of Budweiser and Cardinals baseball. Married to crazy, 'out there' Scottish guy for two happy years. Another science nerd, trading in my labcoat and closed-toe shoes for a backpack and sandals. Previous travels to Scotland, Ireland, Australia and corners of USA have failed to cure the itch; I have to make a break for freedom before responsibilities settle me down.
Loves: beer on a sunny afternoon, tiramisu, and baby orangutans
Fears: snakes, deep sea creatures, and getting too old too fast
Until Breakout!!!!
Check out our route!
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_3DL.html
Travel Blog Posts
Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu
Published: February 29th 2008South America » Peru » Cusco » Machu Picchu
February 28th 2008
At long last we bring to the world another update… but not strictly according to original plans. Some of you will be expecting this to be coming (by way of a drunken haze) from some winery or other in Chile. That was Plan A, but my how things change so quickly. Some of you will be expecting this to be coming from Scotland (and no doubt are still expecting us to visit!). That was Plan B, which was axed almost immediately after it went into action. We are now on Plan C… current location… Saint Louis MO... USA. We are home, and the trip is... ‘over’. But we will get to that in due course… for now, we have fab stories and fun pics of our last days in Peru… and the glorious Machu Picchu. What ... read more
January 29th 2008
So to continue on our journey through Peru, we left Lima and went on our way to Huancayo, in the Central Highlands. ARGH! We're stuck! We've managed to get about 300 miles (as the crow flies, but the roads aren't exactly straight around these parts!) in the last 9 days since we left Lima. The trip to Huancayo was fair enough, but every leg from there on through the central highlands of the Peruvian Andes has been a bit of an experience. Today we find ourselves kicked off our bus in a tiny town called Abancay, with nothing to do but look out at the daily downpour and write another blog. Apparently our onward bus to Cuzco was overbooked, and as we didn't have actual paper tickets, we lost out. Next available bus... 6am mañana. The ... read more
January 26th 2008
We've been waiting to use that title!!! YES! We´re on the road again after a brief 'hiatus' in California (hence the title!). Getting to CA was bordering on the insane. After a 5 hr flight from Bangkok, a LONG 8 hr layover in Seoul with only KFC or kimchi to eat, another 10 hr flight to LA, then a bus across the city to the bus station, THEN a very cold 6 hr Greyhound ride to San Francisco we were pretty much awake for about 48 hrs and walking zombies when Shelly picked us up. It was great to see a familiar face after 4 months of traveling and to have her rescue us from the crazies on the bus. We don´t know if it was the fact that we were in CA or that we ... read more
January 5th 2008
Happy New Year, and welcome to the year 2551! We are in the future....! And let us tell you, that for us at least, it really is so bright we gotta wear shades! Christmas saw us arrive (finally) at Ko Lanta, off the west coast of mainland thailand in the Andaman Sea. A nightmare bus ride from Cambodia to Bangkok, a few hours' sleep, and then another marathon (23 hour long) trip south, and we quite literally hit the beach well tired and ready for some sun and surf. We met up with Lon (our travel buddy from Laos) and his friends and family, and we were welcomed to our island paradise with cold beers and warm friendly smiles. Ko Lanta was amazing. We stayed on Phra Ae (Long Beach) which is a surprisingly long stretch ... read more
December 25th 2007
Merry Christmas to all! And to quote my all time favorite Christmas movie... "We're going to have the hap, hap, happiest F***ing Christmas this side of the nuthouse" Thinking of all of you! Check out the pics...... read more
December 20th 2007
As nice and comfortable as our start to Thailand was (it was SO nice to have a comfortable place after the hardships of India!), we quickly got a little bored of it. Everywhere you go is well geared for tourism... great big groups of English and Australian lager louts patrol the streets noisily. The culture is a little thinned down as a result (certainly compared to India!), and everything had the feel of being staged, or put on for our benefit. We made our way North to Chiang Mai and Pai, in search of places with a little more 'reality'. But it was by no means unenjoyable - far from it. We had an excellent time; banana pancakes on every corner, cheap ice lollies, cold drinks and beer... and massages everywhere. Nice. We crossed into Laos ... read more
December 13th 2007
Happy Hannukah! We can't believe it's December already--especially since it's about 80 and sunny here everyday! :) We are in an excellent state of mind traveling in SE Asia. In fact, we had a thought a while ago while drinking some Chang Beer: While traveling in India makes you think, "What the hell am I doing?", traveling in Thailand makes you think, "Oh yeah, I could do this forever!" With that, we'll give you TOP 10 Reasons Why Traveling in Thailand Is Better Than In India (although this in no way means we hated India!): 10. Minimal harrassment by locals: tuk-tuk drivers, shopkeepers, etc barely pay you any attention in Thailand, where we were constantly fighting them off in India. Even the bargaining in the markets in Thailand is less stressful. All you have to do ... read more
The Sun Sets on Bharat... Goodnight India
Published: November 22nd 2007Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata
November 22nd 2007
To spare you the ordinarily inane opening to our blog entries, this one will dive straight in... Current location: Bangkok, Thailand Current state of mind: Excellent Days since previous entry: about 14 or 15 (?) Days since L last shaved: 12 Quantity to get through here: Inordinately high, as always So... grab a beer, or if you're at work, kick back your deskchair (and grab a beer!), and enjoy our tales of wonder... or something. We last left you all in Siliguri, on our return south from Sikkim. If you remember well, the last time we 'passed through' this town we were waylayed by Brigid's illness. This time was better; she could eat and hold onto her innards, so she was able to enjoy the good hotel food here. We were only here overnight before getting ... read more
November 7th 2007
Yet another entry… typed in the wonderfully tech. towns of Gangtok, Sikkim; Darjeeling, West Bengal; and Siliguri, West Bengal. It has taken several attempts to load the photos with the maddening slow connections. But… we came from further south, so we’ll start there… in Varanasi (aka Very Nasty). We were well warned of Varanasi’s high hassle level, and were pleasantly surprised to experience far less than we have done in many other places. The highlight of our time there was our visit to the Ghats (sort of temples) along the side of the Ganges. Our first night we watched some interesting prayer rituals on the eve of the big Durga festival. Not fantastically inspiring, but there were holy men abound, and fire-waving and manic bell clanging, which were definitely worth a look. The next day we ... read more
October 19th 2007
Ha. HA. HA. Ok, this is my second attempt to write this blog. As typical in India, there was a power outage as soon as I had almost all of it written! We are getting quite used to power outages actually--eating in suddenly dark restaurants with not a blink of an eye, or reading in our room at night only to be left sitting in the eerily silent darkness. Ok, so here goes round two...! Well, I think we left off at leaving the Dubare Elephant camp. We took a bus to Bangalore, the city you are probably calling when an Indian answers those customer service lines! We stayed there two days too long, but it was the quickest we could get a ticket out of town. We went to get our ticket on 6/10/07, standing ... read more
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