http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/iannohere/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from iannohere en-us Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:20:09 +0000 Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:20:09 +0000 We headed off down death road once more but this time on the new improved one its still classed as one of the most dangerous roads but its paved and has crash barriers in places so its not so bad. It took us 16 hours on mainly unpaved roads to get from La Paz 3660m to Rurrenabaque 150m. I have to say the heat of the Amazon basin was a welcome treat. After 5 months in 25C and then 3 more in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-445284.html I arrived back in the Hostel and had a few beer after Huayna Potosi then went to bed and got a solid 12 hours sleep well deserved I might add.Next day we were back on it most of the guys were still in the hostel I felt like celebrating and thats a good a reason as any I suppose so we all decided to go mad as if we all werent anyway. The Wild Rover being Irish owned was havig a big party for http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/blog-445281.html Im not joking with the title I really thought I wasnt going to make it at one stage. Mountains are no joke...Bolivia has some of the highest mountains in the world and also the most accessable. I had talked to quite a few people who had tried to climb some of these peaks and decided to try one myself. To be honest I wanted to climb a volcano from San Pedro de Atacama that was 5480m and only too http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Huayna-Potosi/blog-445274.html Our bus ride from Potosi to La Paz should have been one of the nicest ones we had so far. We had booked a full Cama bus which declines way more than usual and even for me at 192cm 62 there was loads of leg room but it wasnt to be. We got stuck in between a group of Bolivian drunks. This group smelt like they slept on the street and nearly made me sick and that really isnt easyThe guy behin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-445262.html Like a lot of places in Bolivia Potosi starts with The hightest ...... in the world.I dont really have much to say about Potosi it's an old silver mining town that still has active silver mines where tourists can do tours. We didn't bother doing any tours because we heard enough of the stories about the conditions from other tourists and after our 4WD tour we needed a break.So this entry is rea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-445250.html We all got up early for our 7am pick up all five of us piled on too our mini bus and headed for the border. I think everyone was hungover the 3 Finish girls had been doing 4am and 7am tour starts the last few days so they were definitly tired. Everyone was a little apprehensive too a tour group you dont really know doing a tour that is known to have problems and with the cheapest operator we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/blog-437993.html San Pedro de Atacama what a place I had intended putting this blog entry in with the last one to make one big Chile entry but San Pedro really deserves its own spot.Its in the north of Chile at an altitude of 2500m in the Atacama desert the driest desert on the planet. The town is like something out of an old western movie and the scenery fits too the place is amazing. The only problem is http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Atacama/blog-437987.html We arrived back in Santiago after Snowboarding tired as but our sleeping pattern is back on track thankfully. Just in time for our early start on Monday when we went back to school. They say school days are the best in your life and maybe so but returning when your older certinally isnt School was only for 3 hours a day but it was solid spanish then we had homework and study to do after so th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-437982.html We arrived in Santiago airport in a sorry state That all night party that was so much fun at the time was really taking its toll now. Economy class being what it is I only got 2ish hours of broken sleep so thats 2ish in 2 nights. I looked half dead and there was no chance of me getting any spanish out. Thankfully most people have some english and we got to the only backpackers we had the name of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/blog-433064.html Christchurch was a shock to us after our time in Asia and in the wilderness in Aussie We arived on a Saturday night and went out for a few drinks to get a look at the town. The place was hopping and in full swing by the time we got out. We wanted a quite bar to chill in but all we could find was an Irish bar where we could barely hear eachother all the same it was better than a club. It was your http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-433062.html So after a trip to Bangkok a quick hair cut and some catching up on the internet we head off to the colder climate of Australia for what should be 2 weeks of hard surfing and hard partying.We start off by staying with a friend in Sydney Thanks so much for having us Ed We got a quick tour of the citys main spots then went to the Opera house for some lunch which obviously meant some drinks. It w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/blog-426594.html It's alwalys good to meet up with friends while traveling and when it happens unexpectidly it's even better When We arrived on the main land after a night ferry very interesting we go to our bus for Krabi and see Piotr one of the guy we knew from Hanoi. We had been keeping in touch badly bu email every week or so so it was a real supprise. A night of heavy drinking insued when we met up in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-421905.html It seems everyone in Ko Pha Ngan had the same idea as us and the 20000 people from the full moon all arrived in Tao over the 3 days after the party Accomidation was pretty much impossible to get unless you were booking a diving course and I am not messing here My advice to anyone going to full moon would be arrive 2 days early dont stay on Haad Rin and get the hell out after. Move to the w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-421904.html As advised by most people we arrived at Ko Pha Ngan a few days early to get accomidation you can get a better place and a cheaper price. We've also heard stories of people arriving the day of and all their stuff being taken from their room while they are out We found a nice little guest house a 10 minute walk out of Haad Rin town it's close enough to walk so you dont have to get ripped off by http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-421901.html .........Khao san Road beer expensive accomidation and a scene from Vang Vieng. Its a real culture shock after Pai so for me its some shopping for supplies organising a few things the a bus straight out.Well I'll try fit in a ping pong show too I mean where in the world... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-414651.html The sunday market in Chaing Mai is really amazing it doesn't really get going until 5pm but when it does it takes over a massive part of the old city. All the roads are closed and every bit of pavement and road is used by stalls and shoppers. To get around and see the whole thing will take hours especially if you are buying things or stopping to look at items in stalls. We looked arond for 2 hou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Pai/blog-414650.html After our misadventures in Vang Vieng I took 2 days off and did absolutely nothing in Luang Phabang. We ended up staying for 7 days in total it's a really nice place and is everything that Vang Vieng isn't. Tourism has nicely integrated in to the Luang Phabang culture. Everynight there is a night market on the main street in town. Everything is sold there mainly clothes and hand crafts. The food http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-413352.html We arrived in Vientiane after 23 hours. The bus was about what I expected after hearing all the stories it stopped nce for food at 2am when everyone was asleep it got us to the boarder 2 hours early so we had to wait. The only good thing was the seats reclined enough to get some good broken sleep. I think we got a good one because we met people who didnt get a seat and were made to ly down in t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-410397.html As usual on our buses in Vietnam we arrived early in Hanoi which meant 6am not 8am. We also had no idea where to go or whee we were so we just started walking pretty much aimlessly toward some sort of city centre. We got lucky and bumped in to a pair dropping back motor bikes who arrived early too they knew where we wanted to stay and gave us the long but exact directions. It's great when things http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-410392.html I'll keep this as short as possible it shouldn't be too hard since we haven't done anything in the last 2 weeks but we got a few photos for you to be jelous of...heheAfter Saigon we just wanted to get to a beach it's been too long since Goa and the locals are starting to notice I'm not one of them. So we head to Mui Ne the closest beach on our route. It was great to get in the sea again but a l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/blog-404879.html