http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/The-great-adventure-of-Rayburn-and-V/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from The great adventure of Rayburn and V en-us Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:48:01 +0000 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:48:01 +0000 31.07.09 In the last few days we havenrsquot been thinking about anything else. Despite what most of you may think we were really in need of an holiday an escape a break call it as you like.Our weekend away.So because we are on holiday this morning we donrsquot want to rush. It takes little time to pack all we need a brief stop to buy some food and a last one to fill in the tank and che http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Taupo/blog-440289.html 06.02.09The night spent attending Classical Sparks at Hagley Park got us a bit tired and waking up this morning has been a bit of a struggle. In two hours we are finally ready to go.After two tries to pack everything in the car we realized we were probably overloaded for a weekend journey only to find out later as usual that we were still missing somethingSoon wersquore heading south on the H http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Mount-Cook-National-Park/blog-418686.html 30.12.08Itrsquos sunny and warm. Absolutely lovely. Rare stains of white clouds give some joy to an otherwise blue dome. Wersquore driving north on a sole strip of tarmac that unwinds between yellow hills and dark green patches of conifers. Together with the electric line the road is the only sign of manrsquos presence.Irsquom thinking about the summers of my youth spent in the Alps with http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Marlborough/blog-389196.html 18.12.08Km travelled 21453The 15th at night wersquove been sitting outside the guesthouse waiting for a car to pick us up and take us to Georgetown. In the meanwhile the man in the car was waiting for us along the road. After a while he finally waved and we realized wersquove been sitting there waiting for each other. He was quite a talkative man and his son on the other end very quiet was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-376286.html 14.12.08Km travelled 20854Our stay in Penang is close to its end. I'll be very honest it's a place I definitely won't recommend.The journey from Koh Samui has not been the most pleasant. It's been actually fine up to Hat Yai then we got on a mini bus with an horrible driver on an endless struggle to reach Penang.It was already past nine at night when after long queues and continuous changes on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Penang/Batu-Ferringhi/blog-358158.html 01.12.08Km travelled 19811Luciano and Pamela are already sitting at the table when we arrive. I'm still very sick but I eat my breakfast because we don't know when we'll be able to get some food today. We learn that our travelling mates are Argentinian but live in Barcelona. As many Argentinians they have Italian passports as their families come originally from Italy.When we're ready to leave it's http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Samui/blog-354398.html 30.11.08Today we have a tuk tuk all for ourselves that will take us around to see the other temples. But there's no discount on the time 4.30am as usual We are soon ready to leave and the driver is ready so we jump on and go into the dark. We definitely underestimated the cold of the wind at such an early time so we freeze ourselves on the way to Sras Srang. It's only few minutes after 5.00 w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-353379.html 28.11.08Km travelled 19497Cambodia has its own timing as well. The bus that was supposed to pick us up at 8.00 arrives at 8.45. The bus is a bit crappy but I like the driver and the roads in Cambodia are not very busy. With all the stops the journey to Siem Reap takes six hours. I'm quite glad we got some food at the supermarket because the place where we stop for lunch doesn't exactly look invi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-352984.html ldquoEven in this 20th century on Kampuchean soil the clique of Pol Pot criminals had committed a heinous genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity in a large scale it was more cruel than the genocidal act committed by Hitler fascists.With the commemorative stupa in front of us we imagine that we are hearing the grievous voice of the victims who were beaten by Pol Pot men wit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-352398.html 25.11.08Km travelled 19182Time to go. Our visit to Vietnam for this time is at the end. It's not yet the time for me to express my thoughts on this experience I'm still meditating.We leave quite early and the journey to Phnom Penh will take us seven hours.We meet other travellers we get bored together waiting at the border we set foot together for the first time in the Kingdom of Cambodia. They http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-351784.html 22.11.08Km travelled 18822It's raining so hard that I'm really glad we decided to leave this morning. As usual we have to wait a while for the bus to come. For us has been an incredibly long and boring day on the slowest bus ever in the world. We spent ridiculous money for a lunch we didn't order and didn't even finish plus the bus wasted a lot of time in unjustified stops every hour. We'd been t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-351502.html 19.11.08Km travelled 18462This morning we can finally take it easy. The train is at 10.45 so we have plenty of time. We wake up slowly and relax we we can lay in bed as long as we want. It rained heavily all night. When we are ready we go downstairs for breakfast and then we check out. It's not raining now so we can walk to the station. We ended up taking a bit of a long way around and when we r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-351202.html 17.11.08Km travelled 17982We've been sleeping almost all night. It means it wasn't that bad at the end. When I open my eyes we're still one hour from Hu. We're all still half asleep. When the bus parks in a place that looked like anything apart from a bus station we grab our bags and get off. A young guy wearing an helmet is holding a sign with my name and the one of the hotel. I wave at him an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-348169.html 16.11.08Km travelled 17402We look outside the window from the height of our room but there's not much to see. A curtain of fog is hanging outside. Still is our only day here so we will try to make the most out of it.We have breakfast at the hotel to make it easy. We also have to leave all our stuff at the hotel as tonight we're leaving. As soon as we're ready we meet our drivers Dai and Go. This http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Ninh-Binh/blog-347795.html 14.11.08Km travelled 17252The start of the day hasn't been very fortunate. But you can't always tell the day from its start.We woke up very early to have some breakfast and make to sure to be ready to leave by 8.00. The breakfast room was very busy and we had to wait to be served.Obviously we wouldn't have rushed if we knew that then we would have had to wait more than half an hour for the bus to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-347095.html 13.11.08Km travelled 17082Ha Noi is a very nice place but having decided to spend one more day here we thought it was worth getting out and see something else. The choice has been then a trip to the Perfume Pagoda.We've been picked up in the morning at our hotel and joined a group of people already packed in the van. Half of the group was a family I think from FranceMartinique parents two kid http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-346887.html 2.11.08We woke up early this morning with the only purpose of going to see Ho Chi Minh. The ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex closes at 11.00 so if you plan a visit you' ll need to be there early. We weren't actually planning to visit the whole complex but still we wanted to walk there which took us some time.The third or fourth including Stalin even if you can't actually see him embalmed comm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-346851.html Km travelled 1694210.11.08This morning is incredibly hot inside the cabin. The train has been going fats all night. Until now we seemed to have crossed an endless periphery of tower blocks with clothes hanging outside together the air conditioning. Now all you can see from the window is rice fields.Early in the afternoon both sides we see crowds of tall buildings bars to all windows I remember http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-345861.html 09.11.08The sun has come back to shine over the city on our last day here. Time has come to pack our stuff again and get ready to leave. We decided to spend our last few hours in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven Park just half an hour walking from the hostel. It is apparently the finest example of Ming architecture ever built. And it's truly amazing. Despite the fact that traditional Chinese arch http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-345854.html 07.11.08Today we have some more good news. First thing in the morning we walked to the Vietnamese embassy. The whole area is populated by embassies one after the other. At the office we talked to a nice lady that reassured us telling that the flood caused no problem in the centre of Hanoi but touched only the outskirts. Same for Ninh Binh. She said we're not going to have any problem. Nearby we s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Olympic-Park/blog-345825.html