RichJess
Rich & Jess Joined: July 9th 2007
Logged in: June 13th 2011
Logged in: June 13th 2011
Well we went away at Xmas 2006 for 6 weeks and went to New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Sydney. We now have the travel bug so are hoping to go away early 2008. Where and How long for are unknown, but anywhere and everywhere we can afford.
3rd March 2008: start in Turkey for a week to visit Jess’ friend Rebecca. Then we are flying back to London (due to ticket restrictions)
Depart London for Amman on the 11th March 08, going to Petra, Dead Sea, Wadi Rum then catching the Catamaran to Egypt, couple of buses and boats, and pyramids later we fly out of Cairo on the 26th March 08 to Tanzania for a safari around the Serengeti and the Ngoragora crater, and a few days in Zanzibar departing Dar Es Salam 16th April 08
Next stop Bombay and travelling overland to the Taj Mahal in Agra . Afterwards we’ll travel overland to Nepal where we are going to spend about a month, hopefully doing a trek in the Annapurna region, white water rafting, and a elephant trek in the Bardia National Park. From there we fly to Hong Kong (just to apply for visas) so we can get into China. We are going to spending a few days in Beijing then from there getting the train to Mongolia and spending about 2 weeks.
After Mongolia we are heading back to China to visit the Great Wall, Terracotta Army, Forbidden City etc. We are then going to catch a train that travels through China, Vietnam and Cambodia, stopping along the way. Our flight departs from Bangkok around the 5th August 08.
Next stop is Sydney for a few days.
Then paradise.... We are spending 10 days in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Need I say more!!?!?!
Then we fly to LA for a couple of days (stop over), then onward to Alaska where we will be purchasing a camper van to drive through Canada , USA, Mexico and into Central America where we will be for Xmas and new year.
Hoping to see Bears fishing for Salmon, visit Vancouver. Going to see Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, LA for Hollywood. Travel through Mexico, then Belize, Tropical beaches, diving in reefs, volcanoes in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Flying out of Panama City. Phew!!!
From there we have to fly via Miami (CSI Cheese here we come) where we are spending a couple of days. Then we are flying to Peru to visit Macchu Piccu where we will hopefully be meeting some friends and Family for the Inca Trail trek.
Our final destination being Brazil, for Iguzzau Falls and Rio De Janeiro for Mardi Gras.
Travel Blog Posts
Leon
We arrived at the Nicaraguan immigration with our puncture and got all the paperwork done with ease and the Nicaraguan side of the border was far calmer than the Honduran side. We bought our van insurance from a woman hanging around by the immigration booths, changed our flat tyre and were ready to go. Leon We were heading towards Leon where we originally hoped to get to, but as usual, the border crossing took way longer than we would have liked. It started to get dark and so we saw a motel at the town of Chinandega where we put our heads down for the evening. We finished our journey into Leon the next day and eventually managed to find a hotel where we could keep the van there. We headed off into town and both ... read more
Lago de Yojoa
Why are we waiting???? We didn’t have the best start to Honduras. At the border we gave all our documentation to a rude, little woman who just disappeared and then helped a group that arrived after us. We must have been waiting for her to return for about forty minutes when she came back to us. She told us she needed forty dollars, and there were signs up confirming this and again she disappeared. She didn’t turn up for a while and we started wondering if everything had been completed though she still had the original title document for the van. Off we went looking around the different offices and into the immigration huts for her. There was no sign of her but we found out from one of the immigration officers that we would have ... read more
Sunset At El Tunco
No Machetes We crossed from Guatemala into La Hachadura at probably one of the most pleasant border crossing we had done. The staff was friendly, it didn’t take much time (well relatively) and it didn’t cost anything. We were on the Carretera Littoral which runs along the Pacific Coast. Neither of us were sure why but driving along we both immediately liked El Slavador. Perhaps it was the weather and the Pacific Coast. Or perhaps it was that the people walking down the highway didn’t walk with machetes and there didn’t seem to be quite so many guns as Guatemala. New Year's Eve & Turtle Eggs We headed down the highway towards a port town called La Libertad where we heard there were some nice beaches around. We pulled up outside a hotel and decided we ... read more
Tikal
Tikal After leaving San Ignacio we crossed into Guatemala where we were hoping to get to Tikal, an ancient Mayan site, and camp up that evening. We got through the border easily enough and Rich and the guy at customs could speak enough Spanish/English between them to do all the paperwork in order to get the car imported. Having crossed the border we both immediately noticed that Guatemala, or at least the part we were driving though, was a lot poorer than what we were used to In Belize. We had heard many horror stories, mainly from the British Foreign Commonwealth Office website, of armed car-jacking and robberies so we were a pretty apprehensive driving at first. It didn’t help when most people walking down the streets are wielding huge machetes. We guessed these are for ... read more
Border Crossing
San Pedro We crossed over the border and headed for customs and immigration. We completed all the forms and got our passports stamped. We were in, no fuss, no bribes, no problems! Our first night in Belize was spent in a campground called Caribbean Village in a small town called Corozal. The site wasn’t very far from the town centre, so we headed in to get some money and some food. We managed to get some food but no money. In some countries our bank card just doesn’t work and Belize appeared to be another one. Luckily we have a back up credit card, which we managed to get some cash on but naturally it cost us a small fortune for the pleasure. The next day we were going to leave the van for a few ... read more
Mexico Border
Border Crossings After spending a few days in San Diego trying to plan for this border crossing, it was still pretty much an unknown. The Tijuana border is a red light, green light crossing. We got a green light but had no idea where to go to get our tourist card and get the import form for the van. We pulled over into the inspection area, almost turning ourselves in for an inspection and asked the customs officers where we needed to go. This turned out to be a blessing as the offices for the van were hidden behind a parade of shops and a McDonalds. After some confusion we ended up jumping a massive queue of cars and got our way into the vehicle import car park. We parked up and were advised to get ... read more
Paris in Vegas
Viva Las Vegas We had found and internet deal and treated ourselves to a couple of nights in the Monte Carlo hotel. We pulled up and didn’t have to worry about parking as the valets took it off our hands once we had taken everything we would need in the middle of the parking. We headed into our room which had AC and it was heaven after our sweaty nights in Death Valley. We went over to the Stratosphere hotel which stands 1149 feet tall and on top of the hotel is one of those rides that shoots you up into the air and back down. Well we bought our tickets down below, got in the elevator, got out above in the hot Vegas evening and went to the ride where we didn’t have to queue ... read more
Segway
Passing Through Washington and Oregon The border crossing back into the U.S.A. was pretty non eventful. We just drove across they checked our plates and we were on our way. From the border Seattle was only a short distance away so we headed in parked up the van slightly out of town for a look around. Seattle seems a nice city but from where we parked and the route we walked in we don’t think we saw the best the city has to offer as the neighbourhood was a little rough. However, one we were in the main city and relaxed in a café everything was great. Outside the café we saw one of the funniest things we have ever seen. We heard some Al Green blasting out and turned around expecting to see a car ... read more
Border crossing
Liard Hot Springs We arrived at the border in the mid-afternoon and were both a little nervous as it was our first border crossing with the van and we were a little unsure of what to expect. After a swipe of our passports, a quick stamp and asking if we had any guns we were on our way and into Canada. We were heading south but we weren’t exactly sure yet. After a couple of days of near solid driving we arrived at our first point of interest, Liard Hot Springs. We arrived in the middle of the night and camped at a lodge come RV park across the road from the hot springs. In the morning we went over to the hot springs national park which was cheaper and nicer to stay so we set ... read more
Our small plane
Boats and Bears After leaving Pat and Ian for their week of luxury on a cruise ship we went back to looking for the cheap places to sleep. One reason for being in Alaska was to get so see bears up-close. Having looked around for trips even before we left the UK we knew it could be as expensive as $700 per person for a day trip. Well we had heard of a cheap operator in Soldotna called Talon Air that didn’t go to the National Parks and was therefore tons cheaper. It turned out to be worth every single penny and hundreds more. We pulled up at the office of Talon Air was effectively just a small house by the lake with the float plane parked on the lake. We got in the float-plane quite ... read more
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