Lucy and Roman

Mandys

Lucy and Roman

Hi Roman and Lucy are Australian seasoned travellers having lived in England and South Africa for four years, and been to many places. We love to go sightseeing and visit new places. Peru, USA, Canada, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand are some of the places that we have visited over the years.Lately, we have been to Finland, Russia and Ukraine, Budapest, Germany, France and went to England for a wedding. We visited Bali in 2010 as well as Namibia and Joburg! 2012, we visited Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Melbourne, China in May, then Sydney, Blue Mountains and Canberra (ACT - Lucy alone). And now we are about to go to Mexico to start the next adventure before heading to Brazil where we are going to Dani's Graduation from Medical school. Retirement is fun!!

Hola Brazil

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro January 2nd 2013

Florianopolis from our hotel window

Mandys

After our fabulous few days in Iguassu, both on the Brazilian side and the Argentinian side, we flew to our next destination Florianopolis - Floripa for short. We didn't realise what a large island it was - we landed on the eastern side of island and it looked very rugged and mountainous. We were at our hotel within half an hour and were on our way into the main part of the city shortly afterwards. The old part of the city has large areas of markets, and a very large bus station where we headed to find some information about buses around the island or tours. Well we didn't really find either, but we did find a nice man who spoke some english and he adivsed us to get a taxi to take us around to ... read more

Goodbye Mexico... Hello Belize n Guatemala

North America » Mexico December 2nd 2012

Sanote

Mandys

After the frenetic pace of the last couple of weeks we slowed down at Cancun…. Cancun is a place built on mangrove swamps with waterways everywhere marked with signs of the local fauna – crocodiles. The developers built a large spit going out in a large rectangle (20 km), and the whole strip is infested with hotels!! American hotels – and BIG! Our small hotel has several swimming pools and a large outdoor area so we don’t really have to move anywhere. Tequila is definitely the local drink and it’s very cheap – about $10 a bottle, which Roman had a little of each evening. We had a magnificent smorgasbord including paella, fish and prawns, deserts and coffee, with a couple of drinks included for the princely sum of 160 pesos each (about $15). But in ... read more

Central and South America

North America » Mexico » Distrito Federal » Mexico City » Centro Histórico November 4th 2012

Day of the Dead

Mandys

Mexico Journey: 9thNovember – Arriving at the airport in Perth at 4.30 am Friday to discover that we needed Transit visas to transit Dallas airport (2 hours) seemed to us ludicrous to stop us dead, but there it was. The flight could not take place until we logged in and paid our transit visas ( $14 each), but we had to do this ourselves. We tried to set up our computer, to find that the signal was too weak ( 15 minutes of persevering), then recommendation was to run up to Virgin terminal to try the free internet computers there - 5 minutes of wasted running, because the machines were down (me), then asking a Qantas sales person – “sorry I don’t have internet here”. A passing passenger offered to use her mobile which had good ... read more

China

Asia » China » Guangxi » Yangshuo May 29th 2012

Cycling along the Li River

Mandys

Well our time of travelling is nearly over. We spent the last day at Yangshuo cycling down by the Li River and in the afternoon, as we waited to board our train, we chilled out and visited the markets near our hotel. The train left at 9.15 at night and we were on the hard sleeper class - that is to say, we were 6 in each compartment separated by solid sides and open at the front. The hard and soft refers to the number of bunks (6 or 4 resp) and not to whether the beds are anything but rock solid!! If it weren't for my trusty feather pillow that I took with me, I would have suffered dearly! And I must admit that ALL beds in China are like rocks!! The toilets on baord ... read more

Yangshuo

Asia » China » Guangxi » Yangshuo May 23rd 2012

Oompaloompahs

Mandys

Just a short paragraph on the beauties of this spot. Population of only about 300,000, which makes it very small by Chinese standards, this is also a very touristy spot with many foreigners around - including us!! The karsts are gorgeous, the people are very friendly and the food is funky - we have eaten water snails stuffed - very tasty, frogs - mmmm not my preference, duck, pork, baby shrimp cooked to crunchiness, taro crispy sticks to name a few things - great place to experiment, We also had to try the beer fish and rice noodles - both are local specialities. Yesterday we went for a Li River cruise - lovely spot to view the karsts which are plentiful and very beautiful. and today we went for a bike ride through the lanes and ... read more

Chengdu to Yichang

Asia » China » Chongqing May 20th 2012

Buddha

Mandys

Chengdu to Chongqing 13/5 to 18/5 In the evening, I went to the Sichuan Opera with Elaine and Sarah, our mother /daughter Canadians from Edmonton. We were taken by Tao’s friend by car, which was fortunate as it had started to rain quite heavily… our first rain in China. The Opera was held in an open area quadrangle which was covered most securely by a large roof, and around us were shops of various clothing such as kimonos etc. The whole effect was quite colourful. As we were led to our seats, the usher asked as if we wanted a massage – Sarah said yes so she was whisked off. Elaine and I were surprised by this as we hadn’t expected this at all!! We sat in rows, but each row contained several small tables where ... read more

China - Chengdu

Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu May 13th 2012

Panda eating habits - lying down

Mandys

Today we arrived at 5.20 am in Chengdu - one of the larger cities in China - pop of about 14 million. We immediately set off for the hotel where we dumped our bags and then bacon and eggs ( western brekkie for a change) and coffee. Then off to the Giant Pandas Breeding Centre where we photographed the antics of these funny creatures - they were hilarious with their clambering up the trees and then falling off - especially the younger pandas. This afternoon we have chosen a rest and internet time before going to the sechuan opera ( Lucy) and Roman is going to a sechuan hotpot dinner - can't do everything!!... read more

young panda sibling fighting over tree rights

China - Xi'an

Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an May 12th 2012

Calligraphy practice

Mandys

Our first train trip was better than anticipated.The worst part was waiting at the station with a million people or thereabouts until our train boarding was called, then lots of lines and lots of walking to get onto the train. We had been allocated various compartments, sharing with the locals, but our leader, Tao, reorganised it so that Roman and I were in with 4 of our group - Mai, Rebecca and Jethro ( aussies) and Mark, the youngest at 22 ( Brit). Roman and I are the oldest in our group of 9 - then we have Elaine who is nearly 60 travelling with her daughter, Sarah ( Canadians from Edmonton), and finally we have LIzzy who is dutch. A very disparate group but we get on very well. The hard sleeper has 3 tiers, ... read more

CHINA

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth » Perth Airport May 4th 2012

At the Olympic Bird's Nest

Mandys

4thMay the beginning of our trip: We arrived at the airport at 6 am in the morning only to find that our flight was delayed for 3 hours by bad weather in Guangzhou. So after wandering around and having some brekkie courtesy of the CSA (China Southern Airways) and being bored witless, we left at 11.30am. Flight was uneventful, movies were limited to one English and one Chinese for the whole trip (8 hours). All looked ok until we circled Guangzhou airport for a few times and the pilot announced that due to bad weather we were diverting to Shenzhen. Great! So arriving at Shenzhen airport tarmac ( only a few minutes away – near Hong Kong) we remained there for an hour or so until G airport was clear enough for us to have another ... read more

Skeleton Coast and environs

Africa » Namibia » Twyfelfontein September 26th 2010

Mine dump

Mandys

We have been using Kombat as our base to do various trips and our last trip before returning to Windhoek was to go towards the Twyfelfontein area, which is the area for the petroglyphs and various other rock paintings and carvings made long ago, and the Skeleton Coast. The Twyfelfontein Lodge was an extraordinary lodge set against a huge cliff face/ mountain and was very impressive - we just went there for drinks in the late afternoon. The little lodge we were staying at was far more basic - although nice in a rustic way - it was made up of tents fully equipped with beds and towels and mosquito netting, or you could go deluxe and have an ensuite - but as we were only there one night, and the showers and toilets were close ... read more

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