http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/RainbowDaisy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from RainbowDaisy en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:27:14 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:27:14 +0000 These are the photos that are missing from previous entries that I promised to post when home. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Bako-National-Park/blog-410790.html I failed to learn from previous experiences and after arriving at the Nepali border I decided to take the cheap option as usual and save the one pound that was the difference between the local bus and the 'deluxe' bus and so set off on my '7 hour' local bus journey. Unfortunately my '7 hour' journey ended up being a 35 hour marathon test of endurance For 21 of these hours we were completely stati http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/Durbar-Square/blog-409751.html It's hard to know where to start with India it's certainly unique and Ive definitely never had such a lovehate relationship with a country before. There were so many things to hate about it the filth the poverty open sewers attitudes towards women the constant hassle the relentless staring etc but at the same time there was something about it that just made me love it despite all of these http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-408534.html I reluctantly dragged myself away from the idyllic peacefulness of Laos and threw myself head first back into the chaos that is Bangkok. My original intention was that I was going to spend as little time as possible in Bangkok just put in my application for my Indian visa and get out asap. However I unfortunately had very bad timing and arrived at the start of Songkran Thai New Year which is ce http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-408341.html Ahhh Laos.... beautiful green spaces friendly people stunning temples and unspoiled oasis's of tranquillityArriving in Vientiane was a strange experience as my general impression of capital cities is that they are busy noisy and dirty but Vientiane was none of these things it was the most relaxed peaceful city which seemed to have more temples than carsAnd to my delight Laos only got bett http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-402891.html The journey over the boarder from Cambodia to Vietnam was certainly an interesting one as I chose to use a relatively obscure boarder crossing at first it involved me and my backpack precariously perched on the back of a moto for 3 hours riding down some of the bumpiest dustiest unsealed roads Id seen then when we finally reached the boarder I was informed that there was no public transport on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Central-Highlands/Da-Lat/blog-400215.html After a very long and bumpy bus journey and a slightly dubious border crossing I arrived battered bruised and slightly worse for wear in Siem Reap. After the usual hour long trudge round town trying to find suitably cheap guesthouse I finally found a nice one and collapsed in bed for a very well deserved sleep. The following day after waking up feeling suitably refreshed I decided to be super e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-397632.html On leaving Borneo I then had to make a mad dash for Thailand so that I could meet up with my Parents and Dina Mums friend who currently lives in Singapore. After cheap flight and a couple of overnight bus journeys I made it Phuket in time to be at the designed rendezvous point. Unfortunately the place they chose as the meeting spot didn't actually exist so we all ended up walking round in circle http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-386043.html Despite the fact that it was monsoon season and I spent 90 of the time at varying different degrees of dampness I had an absolutely fantastic time. I first arrived in Kutching Sarawak Malaysian Boreno where I spent a few days and made friends with an Irish lad and 2 English girls Danny Niva and Stacey who I spent the next 3 weeks traveling with. Stacy and I decided that despite the weather http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-386040.html As usual I have to start with apologies first I know it has been a very long time since I have updated you all and I dont even really have a good excuse for this except I have just been having too much fun And secondly I was a bit of a divvy and when I met the folks in Thailand I sent them home with all my memory cards flash sticks etc and so unfortunately I dont really have any photos here to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-386070.html The Yunnan province in Western China is particularly interesting as it has the highest proportions of ethnic minority groups and is a really mountainous region on the Tibetan border so it also has fantastic scenery. But due to the mountainous terrain it meant that I had to swap sleeper trains for sleeper buses which really were an experience as they are just full of rows of tiny bunk beds except http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-368863.html I was a quite a shock going from the rural tranquillity and natural beauty of New Zealand to the bright lights and busy streets of Hong Kong. In fact there are almost twice as many people living in Hong Kong than there are in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand put together I met some really nice Canadians who currently living in Hong Kong and they took me on a cable car to Ngong Pin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-360282.html Yes I know... its been a very long time since I have updated you all but I do have a good excuse whilst in China all the computers had a really brilliant feature if you typed any more that a few sentences at a time they would translate everything that you typed into chinese for you But anyway I'm in Singapore now so here goes with the last couple of months for you....It was very strange when http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-351698.html I can quite safely say that Patagonia is certainly one of the best places that I have been on my trip so far it was awesome I started in Puerto Madryn which was a beautiful little place just on the edge of Peninsula Valdes where I went and saw Southern Right Whales which came and actually swam under our boat then we saw dolphins and giant Elephant Seals which were upto 4 meters long and pen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-340348.html Well the Iguau falls were absolutly amazing and I did manage to make it down to Buenos Aires in time for my Birthday which I spent parting until the early hours with some Uraguian lads that I met it was a great night and I had a wonderful birthday Buenos Aires is a fantastic city and I ended up spending much longer there than I had originally intended there was just so much to do there from gr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-338047.html After my really exhausting week in Arequipa I headed down to Puno which is just on the edge of Lake Titicaca from here Steph Jay and myself got a boat over to Uros which is one of the floating Islands the island is manmade from grass along with everything else on them including houses and boats etc and reeds and everything bounces up and down when you walk on the island There are whole commu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-327644.html After Cusco I headed south to Arequipa where I joined up with another English couple Steph and Jay first we did a 3 day trek into and back up again the Colca Canyon which is the second deepest canyon in the world the following day we then set off on a 2 day climb up El Misti which is a 5820m 19000ft active volcano. This was really hard going the first day we had to do 6hrs to base camp http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-326781.html Im now in Peru I spent a couple of days in Lima which to be honest I found a bit boring as there is very little to do there but then I moved on to Cusco which was completely different. Myself and a lovely Dutch girl Hester who I met at the airport organised to go on a 5 day Salkantay to Machu Picchu trek so after a couple of days of manic cold weather gear shopping we set off on the 18th. We h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Salkantay-Trail/blog-316585.html After travelling back down the coast to Salvador I went inland to a small village called Lencois not the same one as before about 600km west of Salvador which is on the edge of Parque National Chapada Diamantina which is national park in the mountainous region which an area larger than the Netherlands it has mountains swaps valleys gorges waterfalls jungles caves natural swimming pools http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Len-is/blog-309744.html Hello all sorry its been so long since I have written its been a busy few weeksAfter Jericoacoara I decided to head further up the coast towards Sao Luis but instead of going on another long haul bus myself Murna and Marco decided to take to scenic route which turned out to be quite an adventure. We had to get a dune buggy 2hrs from Jericoacoara to Camocim then we were meant to be getting a m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Maranh%E3o/S%E3o-Luis/blog-309739.html