One of the great feats of our time is our ability to just jump on a plane and within the space of a few hours be surrounded by timeless sandy beaches, warm tranquil water with colours of turqoise and teal that shimmer against a harsh sun beating down onto its surface. Whilst sipping on my Caparinha the national Brazilian drink consisting of cacaca, crushed lime, sugar and lots if ice to quench even the most strongest thirst I ponder to myself this is the life! A couple hours north of Salvador Brazil is a small town called Praia do Forte. [View Full Entry]

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One of the important Blogs I have neglected to publish earlier this year, 2008, concerns our school's evaluation by the Education Department of the Province of Jiangsu, China. It is a process that is mandated for the provincial educational institutions every 5 years, and Taizhou Teachers College was ready for this rigorous examination of its academia and facilities. I observed the faculty and staff of our college work day and night and into the weekends, making sure that no questions would be left un-answered for the visiting team of educators, who would look into every aspect of colleg [View Full Entry]

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Starting the trip in Canada proved to be tougher than expected. Matt's dizziness took a turn for the worst in New York and after being bedridden for 4 days, we planned to cancel the flight and stay in New York. This was a tough situation as money was low and accommodation was full in New York, so staying appeared to not be an option. Waiting for us at the other end was the wonderfully hospitable Hindley's who we knew would kindly look after us...if we could just get on the flight. Without any dizziness medication, Matt relied on strong sedatives and [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately, most of our actual time spent in Spain consisted of shopping (for shoes). Both Keely and I had made previous trips here so our tourist content was kept to one day. Our hotel room was in a central area of town (El Raval) but the room was an utter shoebox with it being easier to hop over the bed to get to the bathroom and vice versa (our shower was conveniently located in the corner between the sink and bidet... no shower curtain necessary). First shopping stop was the outlets La Roca Village. We had high expectations for this place [View Full Entry]

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Yungay was reached at warp speed in a taxi one would not have suspected capable of such rapidity, but it was not so fast as to prevent us doing a double-take at the sheep grazing alongside Anta airstrip. My second cheapest room in South America was surprisingly good value for money, with the Bolivian-style electric shower packing a 50C punch at a volume comfortably exceeding a dribble. Shortly after taking the room, a hotel minion arrived to remove the TV, but whether that was because it was broken or because they wanted to keep us in the dark as to Andy [View Full Entry]

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Too Good to be True vs Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth? The people running the ‘public’ bus from Attapeu in Laos to Kon Tum in Vietnam didn’t inspire great confidence. The ticket office doubled as the Vietnamese trading hub of Attapeu - a slightly seedy, shades of black market restaurant called the Thi Thi, a place where everything on the menu seemed to come with sheep intestines or snake. As I enquired about the bus service, lifeless snakes bobbed in jars on the counter next to me, pale dead eyes trained on nothing in particular. I’d read a [View Full Entry]

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A thought crossed my mind while sitting in the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Ive found that foreign embassies are the perfect places to just sit and think, especially when you spend the entire day waiting for your ridiculously high number to be called in order to then, find out your fate concerning entry into their country. “If all goes according to the new “plan”, we sure are going to be spending a lot of time in a country that we originally had no plans to visit.” Awaking early and sprucing ourselves up in our Sunday finest, we were going to [View Full Entry]

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After two glorious weeks on two glorious islands we knew, instinctively, that it would be a while before we sprouted 'land legs' again. 'Mainland legs', that is. But we had to try and so we chose a destination that, although not an island, could only be reached by boat. Getting to Railay required the skill and patience of seasoned travellers. First, the boat ride from Koh Tarutao back to the Pak Bara pier, then a bus to Krabi, the jump-off for forays to the ever-popular, over-crowded Koh Phi Phi and Phuket. From Krabi we thumbed a 'songthaew' for a 40-minute ride [View Full Entry]

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