http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Travel Trouble/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Travel Trouble en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:09:09 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:09:09 BST Having spent the best part of the last month relaxing on the sea whether sailing or diving it was clear the fun would soon have to end I would be reinstalling myself back into society. I look forward to no longer describing myself as both jobless and homeless. I feared it would be too much of a shock to the system however to go from 060 mph in one fell swoop so I decided to build myself back u http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-285006.html The journey from Queensland to Indonesia wasn't the most obvious route. Jetstar decided to cancel my original flight and reschedule so that I would arrive at the layover destination 2 hours AFTER my connecting flight would have already left As a result I now found my self connecting via Melbourne meaning I first had to fly 2 hours in the wrong direction. I finally arrived in Denpasar on the islan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/Labuanbajo/blog-284617.html Overall I ended up spending 3 weeks in Sydney which have been great. It has all been about chilling out and making a long Uturn back to the shores of little Britain. First thing I noticed was that I could add Australian dollar notes to the list alongside cockroaches of the only things that would not be destroyed in the event of a nuclear bomb. In gives some perspective as to how seriously th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Surrey-Hills/blog-279570.html Having celebrated my 30th only the night before I crawled out of bed for the early morning flight to Hamilton Island just one of many islands in WhitSundays. The cheapest accomodation on Hamilton is AUD 220 per night so being a cheap traveller I made my way to the main land and based myself at Airlie beach until I would pick up the sailing boat the next day. Being a saturday night I decided to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-279567.html So having spent a week with my cousins in Sydney I'll write about Sydney in another blog I decided I would take a flight to Melbourne frequently voted the 2nd best city in the world to live from a quality of life perspective and it's easy to see why when it has churned out some of life's greats such as Mrs. Mangel Harold Bishop and Helen Daniels. Don't pretend you don't know whatwho I'm ta http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Great-Ocean-Road/Torquay/blog-272979.html Aotearoa meaning Island of the Long White Cloud as New Zealand is known in Maori was always going to be memorable. It would be the first time I would see Sheena in 5 weeks Mel Roly were getting married we would sky dive bungy jump and base jump our way around this most beautiful country.We started in Christchurch. It started well picking up the rental car from a company called Jucy and fi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Akaroa/blog-270409.html Hong Kong was carnage. There is no other way to describe the 5 days I spent there. 21 days of not drinking whilst trekking in Nepal combined with a 10hr delay in Delhi were not the ideal preparation for a weekend at the HK 7s rugby tournament. Arriving at central station I put on my best Chinese accent and asked the taxi driver to head for the glamorous sounding Hollywood road. It started wel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-264832.html Days 79 The Hard GraftHaving acclimitised in Namche Bazaar for the past 24 hours it was good to get going again despite the route taking us up a steep incline at 7 o'clock in the morning. We were rewarded after about 2 hours with absolutely breathtaking views of Lhotse the snow capped ridge of Nuptse and our first glimpse of Everest in the distance. Despite already being close to the treeli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/Everest--Base-Camp/blog-259616.html Day 1 Day 2After a tearful goodbye with Sheena at Heathrow and loaded with the bags of creme eggs I was given just prior to going through the gate I am discovering that true love comes in the shape of little eggs my himilayan adventure was about to start. I bought everything I had realised I had forgotten to pack on the security side of the airport except all the trip details including the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/blog-255727.html The islands of the Galapagos derive their name from the SaddleBacked tortoise Galapagos means saddle in Spanish and are situated 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. The Galapagos are vastly more interesting with the benefit of some prior reading about their origins familiarising oneself with some of the wildlife and also about Darwin himself. Although presented often in documentaries as a k http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-247722.html We flew to Lima on valentines night. One way to measure how good a time you've had in Lima is to count the number of credit cards and bags that are missing at the end. Not known for it's safety most hotels send a designated driver to the airport to pick guests up directly ours didn't of course we locked our taxi doors and headed to our gated hostal.We only had a few hours to see Lima the ne http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/Lima/Miraflores/blog-247615.html Due to a whistle stop tour to Machu Picchu we managed to squeeze in time for a 3 day trekking trip through the Colca Canyon about a 5 hour drive from the old Spanish colonial town of Arequipa in Southern Peru.Arequipa has a picturesque main square with white moorish style columns andarches lining the edges. We arranged our trekking trip bought some new hip and trendy flip flops mine had broken http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-247614.html Sheena and I wouldn't have made good Incas. First we opted for the bus rather than face climbing the 1000m at 5am from the town of Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. Then huffing and puffing we crawled our way up Huayna Picchu the mountain standing behind Machu Picchu in the classic postcard shot.We got the first bus to try and snatch a view of Machu Picchu before sunrise and before the hoards of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Machu-Picchu/blog-245330.html Off to Peru we were. A short 6hr bus ride around Lake Titicaca past Puno and onwards to Cusco Perus oldest city and the base from which to visit Machu Picchu. A simple journey until our bus driver decided to drive past a customs police blockade at 60miles an tour. Whistles sirens the works as the police caught up with us. The driver eventually pulled over and the luggage holds were opene http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Pisac/blog-244230.html La Paz meaning Peace has been anything but peaceful. Set in a bowl in the mountains at 3660m La Paz literally takes your breath away as you arrive. Houses ride all the way up the sides of the surrounding mountains as far as the eye can see.Ironically I too have basically been set in a bowl for the past 10 days we're now in Peru. The bathroom in La Paz hasn't quite lived up to expectations http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-242335.html For the last few days we have been in Potosi the highest city in the world 4060m and a Unesco world heritage site and the town of Sucre named after the General that supported Simon Bolivar to lead the struggle for Bolvia's independence. The bus ride from Uyuni to Potosi was a unbelievable if not a little nerve racking. The bus set off through the plains on no defined route. It was so bu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-240754.html The 3rd trip organised in San Pedro a 3 day 4WD drive took us from Chile to Bolivia with the highlight being the last day where we would visit the Salar de Uyuni a 12 000 sq km salt plain. It started off in true South American fashion with the announcement from the border control aka zoo that the Bolivian roads were closed due to heavy rainfall. Our guide reassured us that this was more or http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Antofagasta-Region/San-Pedro-de-Atacama/blog-240399.html Having arrived in Antofagasta in northern Chile Sheena I decided we would leave as quickly as we could and explore the region a little. We hired a car and headed south along the PanAmerican highway Ruta 5 from Antofagasta via Chaaral to the Pan de Azucar National park. This national park is in the Atacama desert which falls abrubtly into the Pacific Ocean where we set up camp on the beach http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Antofagasta-Region/Antofagasta/blog-238410.html 4 days 3 nights 1 tent 50km 2 vultures 1 Southern American grey fox 5 condors 1 mouse 1 minor lip wobble....this was the W The route named for the shape of the walk over the mountains of the Torres del Paine national park in Patagonia.Having arrived the day before from Punta Arenas on a bus that could have qualified for the Monaco grand prix made worse given one had flipped leaving http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Torres-del-Paine/blog-236240.html After two days of excitement building up in Ushuaia The Southern most town in the world we finally made our way to the port to meet up with the ship a Russian icebreaker called the Professor Molchanov. Sailing through the Beagle Channel to meet the open ocean and take on the legendary Drake Passage. The mood on the ship was full of anticipation as we were shown to our cabin by the Russian cr http://www.travelblog.org/Antarctica/Antarctica/South-Shetland-Islands/blog-234671.html