http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Rebecca V/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Rebecca V en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:19:31 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:19:31 BST We left Buenos Aires on a ancient southbound train to Bahia Blanca. There couch surfed one night hospitality exchange in which you join the club online and can search for people who want to host travelers free of any monetary exchange just good vibes httpwww.couchsurfing.com Then we started out on our journey to the end of the earth... hasta el fin del mundo RUTA 3We hitched from Bahia Bla http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Aisen/Carretera-Austral/blog-271316.html It's actually been about a month since I have been in Buenos Aires. Quite a nice place city great night life tango steaks mate political demonstrations... The general feel of the city is way relaxed nothing happens before noon. Then cafes begin to fill up around 4 pm the parques are full of people sitting around with friends and family drinking a bit of mate the main drink of Argentina and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-271310.html I know I just wrote a long entry but I am trying this new strategy that is all about not waiting several months between blogging trying to post shorter more frequent less intimidating entries... see how it goes.From Rio Dave and I had the idea to go to Ilha Grande about 2 hours south west of Rio and do some long treks. We wanted to hike around the entire island camping in different locations ea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Ilha-Grande/blog-257707.html Rio de Janeiro I believe it is impossible not to romanticized this city and anyone who disagrees with me only has to come and listen to the samba music streaming out of the local streetside bars see the beautiful green mountains set against blue ocean and white sands glimpse the huge statue of Cristo Redemptor and the impoverished felevas looking down on the city from the hillsides or smell http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Lapa/blog-250005.html This is my first blog entry about Brasil. In short we have been in Brasil for about a month we started in Sao Paulo staying with a family went into the interior for a bit to do some trekking on camping and now we are in Rio which is reveling in post carnaval madness. Weve seen a lot of the many faces of this imense country Brasilian meet buffets and caipirinhas towering waterfalls and mounta http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Lapa/blog-243211.html This is something I wrote in my journal to pass time during the 17 hour flight from Bangkok to NYC... I hope you find it amusing. Thailand Cambodia and Laos A Comparative Study of Southeast AsiaTypical bus journeyThailand Being sedated and robbed on VIP tourist bus Cambodia Mini van designed for 8 carrying 30 people including the wife of the driver riding on the roof of the mini van and a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-234979.html It's been about 1 month since I last wrote leaving off in Vientiane Laos. From there I worked my way through southern Laos and crossed the border into Cambodia making my souther and west. In Cambodia I spent about 2 weeks between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap Angkor Wat. Then I joined the backpacker pilgrimage to the southern island of Ko Phangan Thailand where it seemed the entire backpacker popu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-230681.html I left off in Chiang Mai Thailand on my way to Laos. The beginning of my journey was humorous. I learned to never tell a tuk tuk driver in Thailand that you are in a rush. The only local bus from Chiang Mai to the Laos border leaves at 600 am I wake up at 545 and had to take a taxi to the bus station. But first you have to haggle the price it's a long process... I told the guy I was in a rush http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-223680.html If this blog title had a subtitle it would be We like riding buses a lot. Basically the bus ride from Chiang Mai northwest to Pai was the best bus ride I've ever taken... more on that later. I left off in Bangkok a while ago its been about three weeks since I wrote an entry and thats because we spent the first week in Bangkok doing nothing. In all seriousness we spent the first couple days sitt http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North/Chiang-Mai/blog-219009.html Ahhh back in Bangkok the city that makes me sick to my stomach... literally. I don't mind Bangkok as much the second time around but apparently my stomache does This entry gets a bit long if you want to skip to something crazy scroll down to the VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL. and check out this website or google Phuket Vegetarian Festival httpwww.phuketvegetarian.comindexeg.htmSo backtrack to Ko Phi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-213650.html We got out of Bangkok. We made it to the islands. We listen to Africa by Toto a lot. We took an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chumpon a jumping off point for the Southern islands off the east coast of Thailand. We got off the bus around 4am after a 9 hour ride waited for about 2 hours in the lobby of a hostel for the ferry company to open at 6am then took an almost three hour boat ride to the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South/Ko-Pha-Ngan/blog-211136.html This is it the first step of our journey. About a week ago I was wandering through the village in NYC and now I am sitting in an internet cafe in Ko Tao Thailand. I am excited about starting this travel blog as a way for me to record and reflect on the trip as it is happening and I hope you enjoy reading As many times that I told friends family and strangers about my trip I couldn't believe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-209430.html