The girl from Ipanema how are you able to write such complex critique in such heat! it makes me feel so lazy!! actually..... the fact that i´m going to be lying on a beach in rio de janeiro tomorrow kind of makes me feel lazy too!! although in a good way!
Yanks go home Bob Hope used to tell a joke. I like England, he said because at the theatre they wrote 'home' on his dressing room door. The only problem was above the word 'home' was 'yank go'
I am glad I am not one.
Greeting from the Canadians hey, Sounds like you made it through Rosso... nice town eh? About nice enough to make that cold beer taste like gold.
We made it to The adrar and did the camel thing and it was great thanks for all the tips! In Morocco now and ready for that cold beer after the Western sahara journey.
Cheers from your Canadian friends met in Nouachott.
Hey Ousmane! Ousmane - I think you are missing the point here. Suze appears to have no trouble passing thru border checkpoints and you do. Perhaps you need to try dressing up as a woman??? I think you need to add a count of transport methods used on your trip. Iron ore train, camels, dodgy taxis! What's next? Stay safe.
Jealous Tom.... Cam gave me your Blog so i thought I would check it out...
Far out I'm jealous.... What an amazing life you are leading... anyway Westfields awaits your return but I will make sure to keep tabs on you..
Travel safely mate :)
WSHS misses you! well, look who it is. IT'S ur yr 12 debator, ange here and cameron with me
we were just reading ur blog and glad to see how much fun youre having!!
in modern, its beginning to be stressful cos for the workload (thanks gagic) but im beginning to get the hang of WW1 and germany now (finally).
Anyway, when is it that you go back to Australia? cos i think its not until we leave yr 12 that ur back in australia. =(
HAVE FUN! ur debators and im sure the modern class misses you too!
(esp those breakfast days HAHA)
Tourists no more Slim, these photos are so special that I may even have to show my year 7 class. Only problem they will not even have heard who the gangsta with the headwear is...
Sand Sand Sand Tom...I suppose what you are really trying to say is that Atar is the Tennant Creek of Mauritania? Or maybe even Pine Creek perhaps? Whatever the case may be I suppose you at least know what a train load of coal feels like now. Have fun in Senegal and hear from you soon. Oh and ignore the jibes from your father about your pot belly. Remember, he spent decades as a fat bugger.
Checking the Brakes-Road to Pokhara Revisited When I read about the brakes being fixed it brought to mind a Nepalese taxi driver topping up the brake fluid shortly before we all crashed after the brakes failed on the road down to Pokhara. Glad it was not so auspicious!
Overseas aid?? Wonderfully evocotive writing time. Makes problems getting reports in on time seem remarkably trivial. Thanks for living the dream for me and allowing me a glimpse into what the rest of the world is doing while we read stories on how the Federal government has rorted overseas aid for the last decade. And Rohan always loves the camel updates. Cheers.
Hey chico - love ya work mate - nice work culling the history lessons from wikipedia, but really you're overlooking the most obvious source - the CIA handbook! (FYI - the Western Sahara is 'about the size of Colorado'.)
tasty delights Geezer, I have just caught up with a few entries..snails, snakes and a mere 4000 m peak. All sounds a fair journey. Sounds as if Mauritana doesn't want you- stay longer and see what happens....
Spanish Pastor That wasn't weird at all...
I think I liked Tom's version better: "That year, when the Spaniards did a runner on their colonies..."
Short, quick, snappy, and straight to the point...thats what being a history teacher is all about innit?! Seriously, I thought this travel blog is more about reading an individual's travel experience, and not about some random BIASED rambling about a historic event that happened yonks ago?!
Thanks Pastor Pastor, thanks for your comment. I am always interested to hear the real story rather than my hastily-researched-on-wikipedia version. I was only in WS for two days so didn't have a chance to get to know the place properly but the Sahwaris were a very friendly bunch. Wasn't intending to be anti-Spanish at all...sorry if it came across that way. Cheers for reading.
Some bits of info Hi there Tom!
I am an idependent reader of the travelblog website and I like visiting these travel pages. I have come across yours precisely when talking about the WS-former Spanish Colony- however we Spanish never liked the term and considered it as a province. That was the reason why they all had Spanish iID cards and the same lack of civil rights as we peninsulars had because we were all under Franco´s rule, a dictator not better not worse than others - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the rest of the bunch. Definetely, tehy fought ahainst Spanish troops but they made a great mistake, better to say two major ones: first of all not to wait till Franco died and then they could have achieved independence, secondly they trusted the Moroccan secret service when promised them military assitance against the Spanish.
Finally, as I can see you are a teacher, some more bits of info that might help you: Spain did not runaway from its "empire", that one had not existed since 1899; King Hassan II was a very clever man who took advantage of the extremely delicate political situation of Spain in 1975; The so-called Frente Polisario- WS Popular Liberation Front- could get rid of the Moroccans not because their army is better trained or whatsoever but because Moroccans are USA´s best friend in the area; Uncle Sam had and has loads of economic interests in WS - mines, phosphates, even fishing grounds.
Many people in Spain remembers WS and even miss that land with all its beauty and nakedness. Many Polisario members speak Spanish and they keep on teaching it in the liberated areas. There are still close ties between them and us.
Freedom Fighter Tom! Me and the other rightful brothers of Western Sahara were relying on you to rekindle the revolt and lead us to freedom. Bah, back to posting resistance vids on youtube and waiting for our Rambo.
Take care of yourself boyo, and that girl of yours. If not, get a good price for your kidneys.
Travel happens when I can fit it in, nowadays, but it will always be my favourite hobby. Here's my list of the best bits so far, in thirteen years of hopping around the world:
Asia Angkor Wat (Cambodia) Taj Mahal and Varanasi (India) Annapurna Range and Kathmandu (Nepal) Bagan (Burma) Koh Phiphi (Thailand) Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City (China) Peshawar and the Chitral-Gilgit road (Pakistan) Istanbul and Butterfly Valley (Turkey) Luang Prabang (Laos)
Americas Teotihuacan and Mexico City (Mexico) Lake Atitlan and Tikal (Guatem... full info
Ray
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join if you are an aussie...tommo http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22027833-2,00.html