http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tom-and-Snoozy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tom and Snoozy en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:54:10 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:54:10 +0000 Just a few photos from way back at Christmas when we took a trip to Tassie. It's a brilliant place for a week or two's exploration if you ever get the chance. The people are just ridiculously friendly too. Top tip would be to fly in nice and late. We didn't get to the Hartzview winery until about 1 am and by that time it seemed as if the whole landscape had come to life and started bouncing around http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/blog-133548.html Weve travelled about 3000km since Buenos Aires over six days. Tired is not the word...First the trip to the Andean northwest of Argentina. I think that we may have mislead you a little. The bus journey to Salta was only 18 hours not the 22 promised. Also we have to admit that we travelled premium class. Well it was only 4 GBP more than standard class and once we saw a picture of leather seats http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-21218.html Yesterday was the first day of our trip and also happened to be the first day of spring in Argentina. We had only just left our hotel when a kindly old gent the local cobbler handed Suse a red carnation which felt like a warm welcome to life in South America.Every self respecting girl in Buenos Aires was proudly clutching a flower and all the chaps were rushing to the nearest stall to buy flowe http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-20649.html Chengdu Xirsquoan and Beijing three cities of immense importance in Chinarsquos history. All three were past centres of imperial power and maintain their importance in the modern era. Obviously itrsquos now Beijing that is pulling the strings and they give them a good old tug on a regular basis. The only English language TV channel in China is the internationally broadcast CCTV9 and th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-77193.html The standard of hawking up in China is truely world class. Sweet old grannies give you a toothy smile in the street and then turn away to noisily flob onto the pavement. The central government has tried to stamp it out in Shanghai and Beijing at least in preparation for the 2008 olympics. Fat chance these guys are pros if they can't hawk it it probably wasn't worth hawking in the first plac http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-61718.html Asia can be a pretty bewildering place for us lao wai outsiders. If you're one of those people that loves being out on a limb then China might just be the place for you. It's those moments when you're not really sure what's going on but you've had to throw your hat into the ring you don't quite know where you're going to end up or what's going to turn up on your plate they tend to be the ex http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Guilin/blog-60354.html There always seems to be surf somewhere on the Victorian coastline. Shark attacks are rare so you're pretty much safe except that you normally have to contend with some monstrous waves coming in off the Southern Ocean. The recent RipcurlPro surf contest at Bells Beach was blessed with chunky surf with 3 metre faces of water. That's all very well for Kelly Slater et al. but we are much happier a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/blog-56523.html It's not so grim oop north. NZ's North Island contains the bustling metropolis of Auckland the laid back capital of Wellington and a whole lot inbetween. We started in Auckland where we met up with Jezz and Pen who flew in from Melbourne to join us for a while. We headed up to the Bay of Islands a favourite weekend destination for Aucklanders due to its fantastic weather and picturepostcard c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-53612.html Our first impression of the South Island was that it looked a bit like the English Lake District. Well that's true to a certain extent but while England has been lounging on the sofa watching the teev and eating endless jaffa cakes New Zealand has been making the most of its gym membership and is now looking pretty buff. Ths Southern Alps run 650 km down the west of the island forming a rugged s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-45598.html Bonjour tout le monde We're in the Archipel de la Socit where Polynesians ride bikes whilst clutching baguettes eat croque monsieur play ptanque and listen to accordian music well sometimes.... The laissez faire attitude comes naturally to Polynesians so it seems to be quite a good match. Indeed the Polynesians here voted to maintain their association with France in a referendum in 1958 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/French-Polynesia/Tahiti/blog-41913.html The Cook Islands are about 13 degrees east of the international date line. They are some of the last places on Earth to see the dawn of the new day being 10 hours behind GMT. They are only four hours ahead of east coast Australia though there it's tomorrow. We find it's best not to think about that too much it frys our funsized brains. It seems appropriate that these islands should be out her http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Cook-Islands/Rarotonga/blog-38104.html Rapa Nui Te Pito o Te Henua The navel of the world Isla del Pascua to the Chileans Easter Island to you and me the land of the bigheads we thought that we might fit in well here....It's one of the most isolated places on earth the closest neighbours being 1900 km away on the Pitcairn Islands of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. Details are shaky but people probably first arrived here betwee http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Easter-Island/blog-34673.html A happy new year to one and all We also hope that Santa brought you loads of cracking pressies. We've been told that in Holland they have a guy called Evil Pete who works alongside Santa. Everyone that is not on Santa's list gets a visit from Evil Pete and I don't think he makes do with just eating your mince pies and quaffing your scotch. We trust that none of you lovely people ended up cowering http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/East/Punta-del-Este/blog-33818.html El Calafate is a one horse town. It's pretty much been solely built on the back of one tourist attraction the Perito Moreno glacier. Why such a fuss over one glacier when there are hundreds of them spreading out from the South Patagonian ice sheet Why indeed does the glacier have the honour of bearing the name of one of Argentina's most revered pioneers Francisco Moreno Well it's because th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/Perito-Moreno-Glacier/blog-31158.html Well the weather has indeed been as if it were the end of the world. It's bucketed it down and all that's missing is the four horsemen of the apocolypse riding into to town and stopping off for an empanada well ok maybe not Famine hed probably give that one a miss. Ah well we're only 100km or so from Cape Horn the last land before Antarctica so what do you expect...Being in Ushuaia has gi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-29347.html We're already running out of superlatives with which to describe the places that we have visited in South America. As far as we're concerned Torres del Paine trumps the lot it's probably the most stunning place that either of us have ever visited. We'll try to describe it as best we can but we could never do it justice you'll just have to visit it for yourselves.Torres del Paine is a national http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/blog-28586.html Puerto Montt has a face only a mother could love. It's a run down port town for cargo in transit. One local that we met was incredulous that there would be any tourists there and he had a point. However the southerners are friendly. Strangers enquire who you are and where you're going and shake you by the hand. It's small things like that make travelling great. Just before we set sail on the Maga http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Puerto-Natales/blog-27816.html Welcome to Chiles Lake District a spectacular glacial landscape of sheer mountains rolling valley floors and least surprisingly of all a multitude of beautiful lakes. Like Bolivia Chile has a variety of terrains. We have been up high in the Andes scorched in the desert and relaxed in the Meditteraneanlike coast but it has to be said that the scenery here is the most classically beautiful. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/Pucon/blog-26267.html Santiago came as a bit of a shock. Anything that you want is on tap the youngsters wear funky clothes and hang out in roadside cafs slurping beers the food is good the wine is great and the parties dont stop until dawn. We can certainly testify to the latter our hotel was located in Bella Vista which is rammed full of bars and clubs. The music didnt stop until after 6 am. However that wa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-25799.html Hi all. Well the show is back on the road. In fact weve seen a lot of roads over the last week. The plan was to travel down to Uyuni and do a trip around the Salar de Uyuni the worlds biggest salt flat covering 12000 square km. First we took a bus south to Oruru from La Paz. All going to plan at this point we only needed to either get the train or bus to Uyuni and all would be well with the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Antofagasta-Region/San-Pedro-de-Atacama/blog-24898.html