http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/michaelandcaroline/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from michaelandcaroline en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:30:19 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:30:19 +0000 As the region of Southern Patagonia is so vast and spectacular and divided by the Andes with Chile to the left and Argentina to the right we felt it best to combine the blog for the area to reflect itrsquos true character rather than stick with the country by country format we have adhered to before now. Hopefully this will help some travellers who may chance upon this diary as accurate informa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Punta-Arenas/blog-448196.html Chile SantiagoWe arrive in Santiago Chile after a 13 hour flight from Auckland and as itrsquos been an overnight flight it doesnrsquot feel too bad although the jet lag kicks in later. We fly with LAN Chile find the service entertainment a bit poor given the length of the flight. The airport is pretty impressive and seems to be quite modern. We then catch an airport cab standard fare 5 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/blog-448188.html WellingtonAfter the 3 hour blustery if you were up top and slightly rolling crossing from Picton to Wellington the first thing we notice is the highway flowing with heaps of traffic a total contrast to the South Island. We disembark catch the free shuttle to the Railway station. This is linked to the bus stop area where a whole host of buses can take you to the city centre for a dollar. We c http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-381697.html To start with we nearly didnrsquot quite make it to the Cook Islands. Nobody tells you in advance that you need to be able to demonstrate that you have a flight out from NZ on your return BEFORE they let you on the plane to Rarotonga. We only discover this as we are checking in. As we are travelling light our RTW flight tickets are back in the hostel. Options rush back return or get a copy of http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Cook-Islands/Rarotonga/blog-372758.html Nelson From Picton which for us was in the eastern half of the mainlandwe drive to Nelson. Itrsquos been described to us as an interesting town itrsquos close enough to the Abel Tasman National Park which we have been recommended to see by various Kiwis welsquove met on our travels not least Paul Karolina who we met in Nepal who we hope to see again in Wellington the capital. We s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-370240.html Welcome Kia Ora to Aotearoa The Land of the Long White Cloud the Maori name for New Zealand. As we appear to have done so much in our travelling here rather than bore folks with a long blog we decided to split the South Island The Main Land into East and West carving it in half down the middle. Most of what follows makes sense but wersquove used some creative licence to make it work. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-370236.html So the thing you need to know about New Zealand is that itrsquos fantastic. The people the scenery the purity of the air light of the place. Within two days of being here C has picked up all the property sales mags is busy trying to persuade M not without a modicum of success that we could live here Not bad for a place that we had once thought of bypassing on our big adventure.But w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-366846.html SydneyThe journey to Sydney is fairly uneventful. We get to see Leatherheads a George Clooney Renee Zellwegger film about American football very rubbish we pass into a new time zone New South Wales is one hour ahead of Queensland 11 ahead of the UK in fact in one street in one of the towns itrsquos possible to celebrate New Year twice The sunrise at 5 am on the way in is spectacul http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-364298.html Noosa So itrsquos off we go in the rain heading for the Sunshine Coast 16 hours away due south on our trusty Greyhound bus. A tropical storm brewing is pretty apparent with all the lightning thunder about though it vanishes after an hour or so thankfully. We make our way through MacKay a large city when we realise that like the US every largish city in Oz looks the same with the same lay http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-364253.html We leave Singapore at 10pm aboard a Jetstar plane the budget airline subsidiary of Qantas. Itrsquos basic but comfortable though we have to buy any alcoholic drinks to go with our food. We decide to indulge after our travel traumas amazing how far you can stretch a story like that C having some red wine a Jim Beam while M has a red label scotch whiskey which he the proceeds to spill a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Great-Barrier-Reef/blog-356988.html So we made it One day late and without the comfort of Cathay Pacific but at least wersquore not stuck in Thailand like many others. We wish our Kiwi friends bon voyage as they are going straight to the airport to sit it out for their flight back home at 9pm tonight. We also say bye to Jenny from Canada via the SFA Mark from Scotland who are booked into another hostel we hop on the fast http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-352327.html Note we used Bangkok as a base coming and going three times so this blog covers all those visits. So to start at the beginning of our second leg of our adventure we leave Heathrow at 22.15 pm on the 5th Octrsquo08 after being seen off by Sarah Louise with Qantas airlines bound for Sydney via Bangkok. The check in getting on board goes really smoothly. It all feels a bit surreal after http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-351806.html And so we start the final leg of our Indochina adventure back in Thailand for the 3rd time in 2 months For those of you wondering about our title itrsquos a recognition of a familiar saying in Indochina where rather than say some thing is similar they say ldquosame same but differentrdquo. Itrsquos quite amusing printed on 1000s of T shirts all over this region.We leave Chiang Kh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-351467.html Sabai dii Hello in Laotian from the Peoplersquos Democratic Republic of Lao. The P D R is also referred to locally as ldquoPlease donrsquot rushrdquo to sum up the laid back attitude of the Lao people more of this later. The bus from Hanoi to the border with Laos leaves early in the morning 5.30am. We get there in 7 hours travelling initially through flat terrain but then as we get http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-347464.html Chau DocSetting off from Tinh Bien the land border crossing between Cambodia Vietnam we are driven for an hour by bus to the town of Chau Doc on the banks of the Mekong river. The drive is through many fishing villages some with Chinese nets as in Kochin in Kerala. The landscape is beautifully green interspersed with palm trees rice fields lotus covered water poolsponds eucalyptus trees http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-346104.html The start of our long anticipated Indochina tour begins with a meeting of our tour group to meet the tour leader Cat from Bangkok and our 12 fellow travellers a real mixed group of nationalities American Swiss Belgian Canadian Dutch and Polish New Zealanders from Australia Seem like some interesting characters so it will be good to get to know them over the next few weeks. Then its back http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-341071.html Krabi Ao Nang RailayWe arrive at the Krabi Bus station pretty small no taxis in sight after our 12 hour bus ride overnight from Bangkok which was surprisingly good. The bus had a TV which played a sort of slap stick show which we couldnrsquot help smiling at even though we didnrsquot understand a word The bus was comfortable with air con reclining seats. The driver was organised http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-338189.html Hazard Warning this is a long one A result of us racing around a huge country not well known on the tourist trail and with a great deal to offer so bear with us itrsquos illuminating.We are up at 3 am to catch our early morning flight 7.15 departure by Thai Air Asia from the main Bangkok International Airport to Yangon. The cab booked via the hostel for 390 Bhat that picks us up gets http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Yangon/blog-338181.html We arrived back to be greeted by Sarah Louise with a ldquo Welcome home oldies ldquo banner cheeky gits. It was great to see them again catch up with what they had been up to in their lives. They had prepared the study room as our bedroom which was better than we expected. Fish and chips from Chrislsquos in Chiswick was the treat for our first night home in the UK and a rude awakeni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Chiswick/blog-336087.html Arriving in Rio at the Novo Rio bus station we get a coop run cab supposed to be a safer option to the Trip Hostel in Santa Teresa so we pay what should be the fair price of R26 8 discover that if wersquod just hailed a cab from out side the fare would have been R12 4 lesson learnt Trip Hostel is perched on a hill side off a winding cobbled street which has local buses the Bonde http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-321282.html