The Journey

Argentina & Uruguay, Aug. 20th -31st, 2010 It’s not just an overused cliché; everything actually does happen for a reason! We arrived at the Auckland airport 4 hours early to catch our flight to Peru, only to find out that our flight was 6 hours delayed. This meant that not only would we be waiting 10 hours, but also miss our connecting flight in Buenos Aires, and spend nearly 24 hours in transit. Like I said, everything happens for a reason and the six hour delay turned into an 11 day stopover in Argentina and a quick visit to Uruguay. Two countries we did not plan on visiting, but are thrilled to have seen. We found fabulous Puerto Limon Hostel in the artsy district of San Telmo, and instantly fell in love with Buenos Aires! It ... read more

Australia, July 26th - August 6th , 2010 After spending exactly 3 months traveling South East Asia, we were finally going to the long awaited destination of Australia. I say long awaited because Australia is the most similar place to home that we have been to since leaving Europe in September of last year. Its a place where rooms are clean, they have toilets (that even flush) and you don’t have to carry toilet paper with you 24 hours a day. Buses run on time, they take as long as you are told they would, and you don’t have to haggle for everything that you buy. So, as much as we did like Asia, it was nice to be in a place that felt more like home. We arrived on the 5th continent of our ... read more

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - June 19 - 24 Arriving late in the evening in Kuala Lumpur was a familiar experience; as soon as we got off the bus we were attacked by taxi drivers who assured us they were our only source to get into the city center. Naturally they were lying and we quickly found a local bus at a fraction of the taxi cost. Kuala Lumpur is like many other capital cities; dirty, busy and full of shops, restaurants and hawkers. There really is not too much to do in KL, other than shop and see the landmark Petronas Towers. Once the worlds tallest buildings, they dominate the KL skyline and were our first destination once we set about exploring the city. We managed to get onto the Sky Bridge by pleading with the ... read more

Thailand - May 24th - June 18th, 2010 When we first flew to Bangkok from Kathmandu, we chose not to stay due to the political protests that were going on at the time. Now a month later, after a violent end to the Red Shirt demonstrations in which scores of people were killed, we were coming back. Although the worst was over, Bangkok was still under curfew and evidence of the violence was still littered around the government district. Nonetheless, the clean up was under way and things were getting back to normal and tourists were slowly trickling back in. After our 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap, we ended up on Kohsan Road, one of Bangkok’s touristy areas, and also the place where our Pad Thai addiction began. Instead of seeing the sights of ... read more

Vietnam - May 7th -20th 2010 After travelling through Lao, we were unsure of where to go next. Vietnam for me had always been like Russia, I wanted to go there, but i didn’t know why. Maybe it was all the books I had read or movies I watched about the Vietnam War, but something was always pulling me there. We weren’t planning to go there because we didn’t want to go through the hassle of arranging the visa which was required, but after talking to travel agents in Vientiane, we learned it was only $50 and 2 days later you are set to go. So we embarked on a 9 hour journey that would take us to our 29th country on this trip. We had no idea what to expect coming here, not many people ... read more