Paul Casey & Nicola Keane
Here's OUR little story which covers the adventures, cultures, places and people we encountered on our journey around the world.Paul and Nicola
In June 2009 after getting married, we gave up our lives in Ireland and left on a world trip - and never looked back. Hopefully some of you may get a laugh or maybe just see and read about somewhere you'd like to go someday.
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Any feedback (public comment or private message) is always welcome! It's not our intention in this blog to judge, but merely to share OUR experiences.
The first leg of the journey took us from Greece up through Eastern Europe, into Russia, across Siberia, through Mongolia, across China, into Tibet, through Nepal and finally down into India - mostly via train..!!
The second leg took us through Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and down to Oz to see out 2009 with a bang!
Leg 3 began with a whirlwind tour of Australia, then onwards to New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, North America, and Canada.
Leg 4 saw us hit South America - Argentina, Uruguay, Chile + Easter Island, Peru, Ecuador + Galápagos, Colombia, and Brazil.
Leg 5 began with a short holiday in Europe (Spain), and then it was onwards to Africa & the Middle East. We went through Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, and ended our 14 month adventure, 45 countries later, in Tanzania by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Hope you enjoy!
Paul & Nicola
Travel Blog Posts
July 30th 2010
Crossing the chaotic border into Tanzania was relatively pain free and after a few more hours on broken (but improving) roads, we finally got to Moshi. Many tourists stay in Arusha but we had decided to head for Moshi, a smaller, less developed and much less touristy town. We stayed on the main street in a local hotel (word “hotel” used loosely here) and spent a day or so around town just to get our bearings before tackling the reason for our journey here - Mount Kilimanjaro. We had no prep work done; no fitness training completed, and no trek booked… yikes! Never fear – being experts at this stage at last minute planning - we ploughed on. So after some careful consideration, lots of informal chit-chat, and “intense” discussions with local touts / mountain guides ... read more
July 16th 2010
Touchdown… Nairobi, Kenya!! After nearly seven hours overnight from Egypt, and arriving in at about 6am we headed straight into the foreigner visa queue, where we were hoping to get a transit visa so that we could leave overland for Tanzania in a few days time. The original immigration officer approved this for Nicola and gave her four days to stay in the country, but in the middle of processing my application the officer changed shifts. The new immigration lady was sadly not in a good mood and stamped my visa – showing that I had to be out of the country in 24 hours! Not a great start to our Kenyan adventure which was going to be cut short at this rate. We had a driver organised to bring us to a local hostel, where ... read more
Egypt - Pyramids, Pharaohs, Tombs, Temples and a lot of "Baksheesh"!
Published: February 12th 2011Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
July 15th 2010
Arriving from Israel, we crossed the land border into Taba (north east Egypt) and ran into our first challenge. The Egyptian visa we had picked up was missing an official stamp for entry, and technically we weren’t allowed into the country via this over-land route. In these sorts of situations it’s best to remain silent and play the “tourist card”. Believe it or not, we ended up paying the border immigration officer to “sponsor” our entry into the country for a “fee”, whereby his company would “vouch” for us so to speak. The alternative of not being allowed in didn’t sit well with us, so we went along with this interesting concept. Furthermore; and this would have to be seen to be believed, the immigration officer (our new sponsor) also seemed to have a “taxi company” ... read more
July 6th 2010
Making a visit into Israeli & the Palestinian territories was always going to be an interesting experience. We crossed over from Jordan via the King Hussein Bridge, and entered via the West Bank, to be faced down by immigration officers who stamped our passports with the dreaded Israeli entry stamp. Strange as it may seem – this incident now meant that we were instantly blacklisted from several other Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and a host of others. These countries don’t recognise Israel as a country; therefore if you enter Israel, you are banned from their countries permanently, if there is any trace of a stamp in your passport indicating a visit. Once we were through immigration we caught the local bus outside, and headed for Jerusalem to see what lay ... read more
June 30th 2010
We landed in Amman, Jordan about 10:30am and were whisked into the city from the airport by taxi. This was going to be a whirlwind tour as we didn’t have that much time left on our travels. I didn’t really know that much about Jordan before we arrived, but the sight of road signs displaying the distance to the Iraqi border jolted me into reality pretty quick! God that would be an interesting place to visit – but not on this trip and not for another while after that either! This part of the Middle East is getting into real religious territory, with over a hundred sites in Jordan alone being mentioned in the bible - all your favourite characters from John-the-Baptist to Moses, from Abraham to Jacob – are all said to have passed through ... read more
June 25th 2010
Crossing the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain by ferry was relativity straight forward, and 45 minutes later we put our feet down on the African continent. We caught a local bus connection to Tangier, where after literally “doing battle” with the taxi drivers, we managed to get to our accommodation. History of Morocco The Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, and finally the Arabs all took their turn in controlling Morocco. But it was the Arabs who left a legacy of Arabic and Islam, after remaining in various guises for several hundred years. This gives the country a distinct Middle Eastern feel, even though you’re in Africa. During the 15th century Morocco fell under Portuguese rule, the locals regained control for a period but the country was later divided up between France and Spain, whose interests grew ... read more
Holiday time in Spain --> Marbella, Puerto Banus & Gibralter
Published: October 11th 2010Europe » Spain » Andalusia
June 21st 2010
After a 10 hour flight from Rio in Brazil and & overnight in London, where we caught up with an old friend Paul O’Mahony for some late night drinks - we then got a connecting flight to Marbella in Spain to meet up with Nicola’s family who were on holiday there for a week. Marbella Marbella was all about down time, after just over a year on the road. We flew into Malaga, where we stayed overnight, and the following day got a bus to Marbella, a beautiful town in the south of Spain. There we met up with Nicola’s family who had arrived to relax and enjoy their time off work. Marbella, once the home of the property tycoons, seemed to be quiet for this time of year; with the aftermath of the financial crisis, ... read more
Brazil --> the Amazon, the Jungle, and the Waterfall!
Published: October 11th 2010South America » Brazil
June 6th 2010
This morning we were up early, and once again stepped out into the sweltering heat. We headed first to the airport just outside town to get an exit stamp from Columbia (that’s where the immigration police were based) - then back to town, exchanged some U.S. dollars and Columbia pesos for Brazilian reals - got our stuff and legged it over to Tabatinga on the Brazilian side of the border, where we got an entry stamp in police station from the Brazilian Police - and finally we headed to the port to catch the cargo boat down the Amazon… We were a bit early in arriving - as we needed to make sure we had time to figure out what to do. Luckily it was relativity straight forward, so we handed over our newly acquired Brazilian ... read more
May 19th 2010
After arriving back to Quito from the Galápagos Islands we stayed overnight there, and the following morning got a ride to the bus station. We didn’t even make it inside the station building, before some guy approached us; said something in Spanish that we thought sounded like “where are ye going?” - “Tulcán” we responded (which is the most northerly border town in Ecuador), and he started shouting to jump on the bus, which just happened to be passing. Hmmm… all sounded very suss, but convenient, so we chanced it and boarded. It wasn’t long before all the seats were full and the aisle too - and then the food sellers came on, which is always my favorite time as you never know what sort of goodies they’ll have! We had a crazy driver and the ... read more
May 16th 2010
Straddling the hemispheres We’ve been making our way up north along the western side of this…. errrr …. continent. Getting here first of all involved conquering the bus system from Lima to Quito - which is always an adventure. The journey was a 41-hour stint and the bus didn’t arrive a minute early…. And to make matters worse, I had a broken seat the whole way and it was, well... blooming painful! Things went from bad to worse, when not alone was the film in Spanish but the subtitles were also in Spanish! - Where’s the “safe bet” tourist bus when you need it. Highlights along the way to Ecuador… (1) The “border crossing” where we all got to get off the bus for a hour or so, and get exit/entry stamps. I know it doesn’t ... read more
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