Page 2 of LauraBlackhall Travel Blog Posts
After my tour of the mines in Potosi I had 41 hours to get to the airport in Santa Cruz. Loads of time I thought. I was going to take an afternoon bus to Sucre (3hrs) and then an overnight bus to Santa Cruz (15hrs) which would get me in with about 12 hours to spare. But the roads to Sucre were blocked by a protest and all of the buses had stopped running. So i booked myself onto an overnight bus to Cochabamba (10hrs) instead and from there I would take a bus to Santa Cruz (about 8hrs). I would be cutting it a bit finner but i would still make it. Or at least I would have made it had my bus not been stopped at 3.30 in the morning by another protest! I ... read more
On the Orient Express Train
If I felt posh when I took the Vistadome train up to Machu Picchu I felt like I had royal blood running through my veins when I boarded the Andean Explorer, an Orient Express train which took me from Cusco to Puno! It was a beautiful train, 1920´s decor, full of actual furniture as opposed to regular train tables and seats. I had a big comfy armchair to sit in and there was a gold lamp on my table! At the back of the train was a bar carriage and joined onto that an open air observation car. Mid morning we had complimentary Pisco Sours. I managed to snag two and to be honest felt rather drunk after them, which just made the trip all the more fun! I was sat next to a lovely couple ... read more
Arequipa cathederal
After the ordeal that was the Santa Cruz trek I spent four whole days in Huaraz doing nothing! I had the whole dorm room to myself because the protests in Lima (which you may have seen on the news?) where disrupting transport and stopping a lot of people from traveling. The uproar was basically because the Peruvian president's free market policies are only benefiting the business sector and multinational companies. Peru is currently in an economic boom (9% growth last year!) but the wealth has not been spread, prices are rising and the poor, who's pay has not risen are struggling. The protests were peaceful and all I saw of it in Huaraz was a small but noisy march past the internet cafe I was sat in. The owner locked all the doors and shut us ... read more
Miraflores at night
Well the last blog seems to have caused quite an uproar! So I will start by addressing all of the comments suggesting that this whole trip is in fact a hoax! Firstly to mum and dad, no the pictures were not fake and I am not in fact staying in some theme park in America! Secondly to Uncle Ged, no I am not in fact living in a bedsit in Manchester, working in Primark and photoshopping myself into pictures from the Internet! And lastly to Helen, yes that is actually me in the pictures and not some random! When the hair dye comes out and the makeup comes off this is what I look like! Scary I know! So on to this weeks tale of woe.... After i arrived in Lima last Saturday i spent 4 ... read more
View from the Corcovado down towards Sugar Loaf
I left my hotel in Manila at 6am on the 17th of June. 47.5 hours later I arrived at my hostel in Rio de Janeiro! Or was is 36.5 hours later? From Manila I flew to Tokyo, from there to New York and then on to Sao Paulo from where I caught a bus to Rio and finally a taxi to the hostel. When i boarded my plane in Tokyo it was 8.20pm on the 17th. When i touched down in New York it was 8.15pm on the 17th! 5 mins before i was due to leave Tokyo! I wondered if I could get a refund on the flight I seemingly hadn't been on?! New York to Sao Paulo was another 12hours followed by a further 9 of waiting and busing! All in all the 2 ... read more
Enjoying the amazing beach on Batman Island with some of the local kids
After 2 nights at Alona beach on Pangloa Island (where we enjoyed the fresh seafood restaurants along the beach front, the bars, a massage from an old lady that was quite clearly senile and the company of a transsexual called Fiona - see pic on previous blog) we headed back to Cebu city for a couple of nights. Cebu and the Pacific Pensionne guest house has very much become our base here in the Visaya's - we've called in 3 or 4 times in between islands. Cebu city itself is the 2nd largest in the Philippines after Manila and Cebu island the 9th largest at 300km long and 40km wide. The Rough Guide doesn't rate the city too highly attributing phrases such as 'urban nightmare', 'full of 'clutter, exhaust fumes and nondescript concrete malls' to it. ... read more
Tour of Intramuros on a horse drawn cart
We arrived in the Philippines on May 18th and have spent the past 3 weeks island hoping around the Visaya's. We had heard a few bad stories about the Philippines before we came - terrible infrastructure, unreliable transport, dodgy planes, boats that sink, constant hassle from people trying to sell you stuff and rip you off and the really bad stuff like muggings, kidnappings, bombs.... But my experience here has only been positive and aside from a few minor points I don't have a bad word to say about the place. Everyone is extremely polite, shop doors are opened for us by security guards and we are constantly greeted with "good morning Sir, good morning Mame". The Philippines is actually the worlds3rd largest English speaking country after the US and UK, beating countries like Australia because ... read more
view from victoria peak on HK island
On May 5th we left Beijing for Hong Kong where we were meeting my mum and dad for 2 weeks. We were more than ready to leave that's for sure! Beijing had some fantastic sights to see and some great food to be eaten (if you could find it) but it was hard work and wasn't what i would call a holiday. of course the case would have been different if you went with lots of money, stayed in a nice hotel and went on private tours, or had your own private chauffeur and tour guide as one family we met did! Anyway we didn't so lets just end that daydream there! So Hong Kong - FANTASTIC! And contrary to what many people think, a great place to go for a proper holiday, as opposed to ... read more
The Great Wall
And it is nowhere more obvious than in Beijing. Everything about it screams ‘I'm big, I’m important and I’m here, right here’. The buildings are HUGE, all of them, the roads are ridiculously wide and there is empty space everywhere. For those who are unfamilia with China it can seem to exude a my back garden is bigger than yours, I’m better than you kind of attitude. It’s loud, proud, and arrogant and is coming to take over the world! The same can be said of the people, they spit on the floor in front of you, they shout all the time and they are rude. Or at least that it how it can seem to the foreigner. Of course it could be ignorance of the Chinese culture and language that makes these things seem rude. ... read more
The Bullet Train
Well time really has been flying! Over the past month I’ve endured problem after problem with the air shipments of products to the UK. If its not flying because its not finished production, its because the containers didn’t arrive in Beijing. And if that’s not the reason then its because the paper work is wrong or the captain of the plane got ill and didn’t show up! Are these problems (and a whole host of others I wont even go into) a result of this being a new venture and therefore being prone to teething problems? Or is it because the process involves four countries (Canada, Japan, China, UK), too many companies, too many people and too many variations in business and communication style? Well I think its probably a combination of the two factors. The ... read more
