We reached Venezuela safely! It gave us a lot of worry due to so many horror stories. We opted for the Cucuta to San Cristobal crossing and we can see why it is easy to miss your Colombia exit stamp. Unlike most places where everything is organised to stamp you in and out at the point of exit and entry, Colombia and Venezuela like to move the office away a bit so that you have to find it and in some cases miss it all together. If you dont get your exit stamp, the Venezuelans will try and "fine" you even [View Full Entry]

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After leaving San Gil we headed further north to Buccuramanga to catch an overnight bus up to the northern regions. A city of considerable size, yet again. It has surprised us to see that Colombia (outside of the Amazon and the Choco) is extremely populated, its never that long before you seem to be in another big town. We caught a night bus and headed to El Banco in the north of the country. There appeared to be only 5 people going there, but a huge big bus was provided. As night buses are not reccomended by the LP or the [View Full Entry]

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We had another incredibly awful flight! Akin to our other one to Jakarta. Bumpy as hell and fearing for our lives. There must be somthing about flying over jungle! We arrived at Bogota in the evening. The airport is very small (considering it is the capital). There was barely a shop to buy a bottle of water. There was complete chaos outside the airport. It was gridlocked with traffic. We got a taxi and once we did get out of the traffic, it was like being in that movie "Taxi" with Queen Latifah, where the car turns into a sporty racing [View Full Entry]

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We crossed the land border into bolivia by foot. Immediately you notice the difference, its all hustle bustle, mountains of coca leaves for sale and all the ladies with plaits and bowler hats. We bought our bus ticket to Tupiza and waited. Whilst we were waiting a street parade of school kids and brass band came marching and dancing about the streets (we were about to find out that this is always going on in Bolivia). So we bought a bag of coca and some bicarbonate (used to release the alkaloids from the leaves). Coca helps with just about everything apparantly, [View Full Entry]

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The flight to Argentina from Sydney was a surprise. When we got our seats, they seemed to be not in first class and not in economy class but something in between. We noticed that the seats were bigger and instead of the usual 3, 4, 3 seat lay out, it was 2, 3, 2. We were offered champagne or orange juice before we even started moving. The flight was great. We got better food than normal too. We dont know why this happened, but what a difference it made to our flight. We arrived in Buenos Aires half an hour after [View Full Entry]

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After a flight from Cairns to Brisbane (2 hours), 1 hour wait then fly from Brisbane to Perth (5 hours) we were finally in Western Australia. Amazing to think it would take us that long to fly across the same country. Once again, they were all correct when they said that OZ is big! We had our first day wandering around in Perth, which was a beautiful city. The views from Kings park across the harbour are some of the nicest of any city. The fact that the bus to Kings Park is also free is another bonus for Perth! Con [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop in eastern Australia, Sydney started before we even stepped off the plane with fantastic views across the harbour. Once there our search for accomodation wasn´t going well but we eventually found something near Chinatown before heading off for a nightcap. The next morning we headed off for (where else) the harbour bridge and opera house, two of the most famous Australian icons followed by Sydney zoo. Whilst walking round the zoo we saw some of interesting animals and in particular our interest was taken by the native birds (the kind with wings). As we were to find out [View Full Entry]

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So we left Asia, sadly. We were very excited to pick up our new home for the next 3 weeks and we werent dissapointed. It was going to be nice having a base for 3 weeks rather than 3 days. We had a day trying it out before meeting Neils mum briefly and taking off on our South Island trip by firstly driving through Arthurs Pass. Immediately New Zealand felt like we had went home. It has a very British feel (maybe not if we had come straight from the UK and not 5 months in Asia). The climate, the people [View Full Entry]

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We managed to make it to Bali alive after our Indonesian ferry crossing. My goodness Indonesia must be the most disaster prone and unsafe travel destination ever. The stats are pretty frightening and we still intended to take a 5 hour ferry journey to Lombok after Bali. We arived in the hell hole that is Kuta. It was like leaving Indonesia. Although nice on the drive there, Kuta is a bit of a dive and very westernised with hundreds of designer shops, cheap eats and shawdy hostels and hotels. We got a room in another prison like hole and realised that [View Full Entry]

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After getting on the bus from Jakarta and heading to Bandung, there was never a dull moment. There is plenty to observe from what is going on out in the street to folks jumping on the bus for a couple of minutes to sell anything from longans, rambutans, dried fruit, chicken rice, peanuts, baseball caps, plastic handled scissors, newspapers, colouring books or just busking for one song before leaping off again. Outside the towns there are bottle green rice paddys and the occasional volcano jutting out of the landscape. There is no backpacker area as such in Bandung, so we had [View Full Entry]

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