I only had 3 days each in Tokyo and Hong Kong, but managed to see plenty. The day I arrived in Tokyo there was some cultural action around where I was staying, not sure what it was, but I think it was a 'national cultural day' which could mean anything. I was staying in Asusaka, near a main temple where there was dancing and music going on in the morning. I'd flown over night, so crashed out in the afternoon to discover that there had been thousands of people in the street in the afternoon. Ah well, I'm sure it was [View Full Entry]

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I started the New Zealand and Australia part of my trip in Auckland, which was cold and grey, bit of a shock after Hawaii. I decided to head north to where it was slightly warmer, and went to the Bay of Islands area for a few days, where I went to the beach in Russell for a couple of days and went on a day trip to Cape Reinga, the most northerly part of New Zealand. After that it was to Wellington to stay with cousin Tracey for a few days of drinking related activity, including a ceilidh in a wee [View Full Entry]

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Well all my promises of regular updates due to my new digital camera have proved to be, as I suspected, a load of rubbish. But I only have one month and a bit to update, which is better than normal. From Vancouver I went to Vancouver Island, which proved to be pretty expensive to get around by bus, so I had to limit myself to a couple of places. I started off with Port Alberni, where I met a German woman Steffi as we got off the bus, and I spent the next 5 or so days travelling with her, doing [View Full Entry]

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It's expensive, you can buy Irn Bru in the supermarket and everyone looks like they've just stepped out of a Gap advert, so I must be in Canada. I've been in Vancouver for a few days now, and I love it, I can see why it's meant to be the most 'livable' city in the world or whatever. Or perhaps it's still the effect of having spent 2 days in Dallas immediately before coming here, which has got to be one of the world's most unlivable cities. Bit of a contrast. Hopefully this will be my last mammoth update, as I [View Full Entry]

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just a quick update to say that I tomorrow I am leaving Latin America, and, yes I know that there is still 4 months of updates on Central America missing! It's a combination of slow internet connections (or in the case of Nicaragua no electricity), some photos having been processed with big splodges all over them, some not being put on disc, and now my camera having given up. But I will get round to it, honest! So tomorrow after 11 months in South and Central America, I will fly to Dallas for a well earned culture shock. I'm quite sad [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, this is yet another update to say that I'm behind with my updates, which I will eventually get round to properly. I'm going to be in Granada in Nicaragua for the next month or so, working on a project to build houses for families who are living in shacks on private land ( which means they could get thrown off at any time). Only had a couple of days working on the project so far, but I've been mixing cement (with a shovel, no cement mixers here!) and digging foundations. The people in the community of La Prusia are [View Full Entry]

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How can I begin to describe my experience of Cuba? Probably the easiest way is to begin at the end. On checking in to fly back to Cancun at Havana airport, nobody mentioned that I needed to pay departure tax of $25. I managed to get to the point of boarding the plane before this was pointed out to me. Bit of a problem - I only had the equivalent of $12 in Mexican pesos on me which I showed to the aiport official checking the boarding passes and explained that it wasn't enough, but it was either this or Visa, [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, Feeling guilty again about not updating my blog, so here's a very quick rundown of where I've been and what I've been doing, when I get photos developed will go over it all again in more detail! From Easter Island I flew to Mexico City and ended up spending 10 days there, it's a great city with so much to do and see, you could easily spend a few weeks there. Went from there to Oaxaca for a few days, then to Pacific coast for a couple of nights and to San Cristobal in Chiapas. Both Oaxaca and San [View Full Entry]

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After spending a freezing cold night in Santiago airport (I had forgotten the weather might not be the same there as it was when I was there 4 months ago) I was introduced to the delights of the LAN Chile in-flight entertainment system - you can chose from about 20 films, loads of programmes and 300 albums and watch or listen to what you want went! After so many 18 hour bus journeys in Brazil spent staring out into the dark, 6 hours just wasn't a long enough flight for a full range of entertainment options. The flower necklace I was [View Full Entry]

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I had a black and white film rattling round the bottom of my bag for a while, and have got it developed in Mexico City, here are some of the images. [View Full Entry]

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