http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MichaelnFaye/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MichaelnFaye en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:49:05 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:49:05 +0000 Sohellip The United States. We count ourselves as being fortunate enough to say that wersquore well travelled so how come the USA or the North American continent for that reason have managed to escape our foot fall To be honest there was never anything we wanted to see that was high enough on our lsquolistrsquo. There were certainly places on the list just not high enough to justif http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-440997.html Sohellip The first question you may ask is what possessed us into thinking taking a 6 month old baby half way across the world for a holiday was a good ideaAs much as wersquove changed our lives to accommodate Nate our beautiful son we also want him to understand that our lives revolve around a passion for travel and his arrival isnrsquot going to change that. So thatrsquos our comp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-391086.html Some Photos from our 7 weeks in India. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-289828.html some Photos from our week in Hong Kong http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-289824.html We decided to take a somewhat alternative route into Vietnam as we wanted to visit the mighty Mekong delta first and the best way to see this area of vast rivers and numerous waterways is by boat. From Pnom Penh we took a bus to the waterside town of Neak Luong and then jumped on a boat for the two and a half hour journey to the border. The border crossing was pretty uneventful and afterwards http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-255695.html Our first challenge on our journey to Cambodia was navigating the border crossing circus at Poipet. As wersquod done it before three years ago we knew what to expect but it was a shame to see nothingrsquos changed as it really gives a terrible first impression of such an amazing country.We caught a public bus from Bangkok to the border town on the Thai side and then strolled straight past http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/blog-240725.html Chiang MaiOnce wersquod crossed over the border from Laos we jumped straight on a bus headed for Chiang Mai which is sort of the northern capital. We headed there because we have fond memories of the city from a previous visit a few years ago and we thought it would be a great place to spend Christmas hopefully keeping us occupied for a few days so we wouldnrsquot dwell on the fact that w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-240380.html Vang ViengFrom the Philippines we flew to Bangkok where we only spent a couple of days catching up with friends who also happened to be in the city. It was great to see some familiar faces and go beyond the usual wherersquove you been where you going next conversations that we usually only have time for with the majority of people we meet.From Bangkok we caught a bus up to Nong Khai near the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-238296.html Once we landed at Kuala Lumpur we transferred straight to the main terminal building to ask about flights as we had some choices to make. Our first choice was Japan and after a few enquiries we found out itrsquos the same price to get a return flight to Japan from here as it is from London so we scratched that off the list. Our next choice was the Philippines which would require a trip b http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/blog-228933.html Bukit LawangWe caught a short flight from Jakarta to Medan northern Sumatra cutting out long overland journey that would be required but we did as most people do in Medan and passed straight through. We caught a public bus to our next destination Bukit Lawang and the journey happened exactly as the guide book explained it would starting with a friendly local asking us about ourselves. From http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/blog-225620.html Gunung BromoWe arrived at the town of Probolinggo at 130 in the morning after 10 hours on the bus from Bali. At this time it would have been possible to continue straight on to Gunung Bromo the whole point in us being here to catch the sunrise but as we were both completely knackered from getting no sleep on the bus we decided wersquod wait a day and do it the next morning so wersquod fee http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/blog-224192.html So here we are the start of our Asian adventure our true travel love. Thankfully wersquove chosen an entry destination thatrsquos as touristy as it gets easing us into the changes required to travel in a less lsquodevelopedrsquo continent.KutaSouth BaliWe started here in South Bali the throbbing beat of the island where the majority of people stay to either catch a wave or chill on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-221408.html This is a very short blog just to say that wersquove made it to Sydney on time actually with plenty of time to spare. On our way down the coast we stopped briefly in Byron Bay to have a look and camped for a few days in the forest surrounding the city gaining a few moments of peace before we spend two weeks in the big city.As soon as we arrived we got the van serviced the wind screen rep http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-214957.html Itrsquos been a while since I last lsquobloggedrsquo and wersquove managed to rack up a whole heap of experiences since we crossed the border into Queensland from the Northern Territories which means Irsquom getting hideously behind in my write ups. Irsquom going to change from my normal style of writing and list each experiencelocationactivity in separate subsections making it mu http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/blog-214167.html After crossing over the border into the Northern Territories from Western Australia we headed straight up towards the Top End stopping briefly in Katherine to grab a sandwich. Our first stop was Lichfield National Park a hundred or so Km south of Darwin famed for its waterfalls and crystal clear swimming holes.We entered the park and headed towards the first water hole Buley Rockhole. We expec http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/blog-208654.html After our jolly round the southwest we spent a couple of days back in Perth with our surrogate family relishing all the comforts of home before the grand road trip starts. While we were in the city we decided to take a tour round Old Fremantle Prison we hoped to do a spooky night time tour but they only run on certain days but a day time tour would hopefully provide enough atmosphere to make http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/blog-200991.html After Saying farewell to Mark in Auckland Faye and I had a few days to kill before our onwards flight one of which was my 28th birthday so we journeyed north of Auckland to the Bay of Islands as wersquod heard they were beautiful and hopefully a little bit warmer that what wersquod been experiencing.The Bay of Islands consists of 144 islands and numerous coves with usually calm beautiful b http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/blog-197082.html We made our way across the Cook Strait on the first Bluebridge ferry of the day there were slight delays because of the weather but it wasnrsquot too bad. Once wersquod departed Wellington though we soon realised why there were delays the sea was incredibly rough with huge swells and waves rocking and swaying the ferry from side to side it didnrsquot take long till Faye and I had to run http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-188133.html After hightailing it across the S. American continent city hopping to Santiago we flew out to New Zealand sadly completing the first leg of our grand tour. Although sad to leave wersquore taking with us some incredible photos and even better memories which will undoubtedly stay with us forever better yet wersquove already vowed to return taking in some of the amazing things wersquod h http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-181805.html After completing the Inca Trail we deserved some serious RR so we decided not to do anything too strenuous and stayed an extra couple of days in Cusco before moving onwards to Arequipa a city further south and closer to the coast.Arequipa has been dubbed lsquothe white cityrsquo because many of itrsquos colonial buildings have been built using a light coloured volcanic rock and sits in a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-163160.html