http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Si-and-Luce-on-tour/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Si and Luce on tour en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:27:21 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:27:21 +0000 For some weird reason the buses from Uyuni to Tupiza all leave at 6am. At that time in the morning it is freakin' freezing and our bus was as basic as they come no heating. We were the only tourists on the bus we were travelling with Mike a chap we met on our salt flats tour and everyone else looked on pitifully as they loaded their bags laden with blankets at least 4 each. It was a ve http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-401531.html In the touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile there was one main attraction for us an astronomy tour offered in one of the best star gazing locations in the world. Looking through some pretty impressive telescopes we were shown a gaseous nebular Alpha Centauri a very impressive Saturn rings and all plus a closeup view of the moon. The tour was led by a slightly crazy F http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-398957.html Buenos AiresWe flew into a ghostly quiet BA slightly dodgy flight with a reject landinghellip the streets were empty due to a massive football game at the nearby Boca stadium. It's a fantastic place one of our favourite cities full of beautiful architecture and friendly people. We walked to all of the main touristy sights including a famous cemetery Cementerio de la Recoleta full of d http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-395875.html Hey ChicosAfter a couple of days in Santiago we took a plane to Punta Arenas right at the southern tip of Chile. It was a complete shock to get off the plane to 6 degrees C having spent the last 6 months in the heat We only spent a night there and the following morning took a bus to Puerto Natales. The scenery was spectacular and we got even closer to the action on a trip to the Torres Del http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/blog-391616.html We were really looking forward to visiting Easter Island and have to say that our week there did not disappoint. We stayed at a great guesthouse called Tersquoora which had a fantastic location a prime time spot for watching the sunsets with a Pisco Sour in hand the national beverage yummy The accommodation has a mascot a lovely dog called Michigan who takes on the job of body guard to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Easter-Island/blog-391283.html HuahineOur next stop was Tahiti and from there we caught a tiny plane to the beautiful island of Huahine. We were really lucky to find a slice of paradise called Motu Mahare an even smaller island separated from Huahine by a few hundred metres of water in a truly amazing setting which was made even better as we were the only guests. Our hosts Kim and Walter were fantastic lending us their kay http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/French-Polynesia/Huahine/blog-387781.html One of the best daywalks in NZ is the Tongariro crossing. It takes around seven hours and involved a rather early start and a random bus journey to the beginning of the track on a 1970s bus fully equipped with the driverrsquos puppy under the seats. The weather is very changeable and started off a little wet getting slightly colder and wetter as we reached the highest point before finally http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-383284.html South Island Happy campersWe collected the camper a truly camp Nissan ldquoVanetterdquo which we have named Vanessa in Christchurch and spent our first night at a fantastic campsite right next to miles of empty beach.In Kaikoura we took an awesome trip whale watching and were lucky enough to see 5 Sperm whales all showing us their massive tails the money shot as they headed down to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-378274.html Fantastic SydneyWe have had a brilliant time here. The weather has been perfect and wersquove been busy seeing the sights walking for miles around the opera house and harbour across the bridge the official bridge climb was fairly expensive and as Australia is crippling our budget we decided to take the advice of fellow travellers and go for the free option walking across it instead Have http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-364849.html We knew that our visit to Port Douglas would be right in the middle of rainy season and itrsquos safe to say that the weather predictions were very accurate one night it rained 400mm. The town lies next to four mile beach which is pretty much as it says on the tin. Given the season we had free reign of about 1 miles on our first day but failed to take any pictures and the monsoon rains http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Port-Douglas/blog-364829.html After a couple of great months in SE Asia it was kind of nice to have a brief stint back in the familiarity of a westernstyle city with wall to wall shopping malls complete with aircon reliefWe took in a few sights across the city including ldquoThe fountain of wealthrdquo one of our favourites the esplanade and a city bus tour which took us through the cultural centres of Little Indi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-361943.html Kuala Lumpur was seriously hot and humid when we arrived and so busy that it was quite a shock after chilling out on the beach for a couple of weeks. We stayed in the first proper hostel on our travels and to be honest it was grim Our room was damp with a really disgusting bed and a totally feral communal bathroom. Needless to say we didnrsquot spend much time therehellipOne of the main to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-361935.html Thailand has some amazing reefs so we decided to make the effort and take a PADI Open Water diving course so that we could fully appreciate the underwater sights. We chose to stay in a small town called Khao Lak north of Phuket. Itrsquos a fairly quiet place certainly when compared to Phuket and other major resorts but it thrives on dive tourism Khao Lak is the gateway to the Similan Isl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-356989.html Bangkok is a real mix of culture and chaos. On the cultural side we went to see the Grand Palace a host of golden buildings and beautiful statues. We thought that we had done our homework and dressed accordingly however upon arrival Si was told that his length trousers were not allowed in so if you see his strides in the pictures please be assured that they are not some type of hippy fashi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-356894.html Unfortunately we were both pretty sick in Chiang Mai though considering that we have been on the road for nearly 2 months without any dodgy tums itrsquos not too bad really. Most of our time there was spent hanging out in the hotelhellip Still determined to see the lovely city we crashed on and managed to fit everything into a busy 1 days.We took a day trip rammed full of activities begin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-356866.html Life's a Lazy BeachWe took a bus from Phnom Penh to the seaside town of Sihanoukville and spent the night. Then the next morning we headed off to an island called Koh Rong Saloem and the Lazy Beach bungalows the final leg of our journey being a 3 hour fishermanrsquos boat trip. It was seriously lush and we couldnrsquot believe our luck There are only 10 bungalows on a huge stretch of bea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Sihanoukville/blog-352677.html After an expensive boat journey up the Mekong Delta in an attempt to take a couple of pics on deck Sirsquos sunnies flew off never to be seen again we arrived at Siem Reap. The small town was really relaxing and we couldnrsquot wait to visit Angkor Wat.Our first view of the site was at sunset we hired a tuktuk to one of the ruins which is supposed to be the best place to see it and wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-352672.html On our first day we headed out to Wat Phnom a temple in central Phnom Penh where Khmers go to pray for their fortunes. It appeared that a hefty number of monkeys have also cottoned on to this idea. An elephant called Sambo would also hang out around the temple and we would often see him on the commute home in the evening as we chilled out in a cafe.The Royal Palace was the most expensive attrac http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-352666.html Ho Chi Minh City was pretty chaotic to be honest. We took a trip to Cu Chi where during the US war in Vietnam the Viet Cong carved out hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels to assist in the fight against the Americans. They were quite amazing we shimmied through some which have been widened for the westerners and they were still snug How anyone could spend more than 10 minutes in s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-352661.html Even though the weather was shocking constant rain resulting in flooding of the shops next to the river we loved Hoi An. Days were spent mooching around the old city shops and markets followed by afternoons strategically drying off in one of the awesome bars with a pinacolada or two thank the lord for Happy Hours. Our hotel was run by the Vietnamese equivalent of Del Boy we were offered http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-347122.html