nathan jones

Putting all of my worldly belongings on my back, i staggered out of my bungalow suffering from a lack of sleep, it was quiet and still dark with the sun just starting to creep over the horizon. The early morning start suited my mood, there was no one around, i was alone, the island was dark and this part of the journey was dead, in the distance the emerging sun was giving life to further adventures and urged me not to miss the people i had lost. I remembered fondly the friends i had made, and of the fantastic send off the night before, and looked forward with excitement and fear of the road ahead. I turned up at the jetty to catch the boat back to the main land without a ticket, any firm idea ... read more

Next stop and final destination La Paz. We had to disembark from the truck to cross the Peru - Bolivia boarder. There was a rather chaotic money changing and visa application process before finally going through custom control. The guard on the boarder flicked through my passport and noticed all the entry/ exit stamps for Estonia, although I understood very few of the words i ascertained what he was saying he asked his fellow guard in Spanish where Estonia was, and the response Eastern Europe. Given Bolivia’s finest export he eyed me curiously, and asked me a question, I guessed what it was, but played dumb, and even if I did give the explanation in English would he have understood? We set of to walk the couple of meters across the border. There were armed guards ... read more

As we arrived in Cuzco i was feeling a little ill, not really sure if its mild altitude sickness, a bug, a fever or just feeling rub down, i have not really been on top form since I arrived in South America. On our first night we all went for a beer in an irish bar on the main square, inside you could have been in an O’neils, with the wooden panelled walls littered with memorabilia, i looked at the menu, cottage pie, oh yes please. They were quite a large number of the group there i had a beer but my head was pounding. I wanted to go home but there is another part of me that wants to enjoy the experience, I leave the pub flag down a cab to take me to the ... read more

Kathmandu The four of us, suze, Helen, sanna and i headed to the airport to finally say goodbye to india. True to form the airport although small and relatively quiet was a mixture absolute chaos and confusion. We were helped by an Indian man who grabbed us as soon as we turned up and tried to direct us through the administrative mayhem and then of coarse wanted paying. He did successfully get our bags scanned and onto the plane, but then came the checking in, there were two people on the counter, they were doing a job that could be done by one person, but instead they could only do half a job each, which made the whole process longer, this was exacerbated but the fact that their roles we not split up as first half ... read more

I caught the boat from the Perhention islands to Kota Bhau at 7am with the sun rising over the larger Perhention Island. You have to catch a small boat out 20 meters to be picked up by a slightly larger boat to ferry you across, the bay was littered with these as people sadly left the perhention to reach there next destination, everybody as sad as the next to be leaving such a wonderful island. Other than agreeing that we would get the first boat out i had made no other plans with Trina and Maren about where to meet, they were not on the boat that i had boarded, as for the onward journey they had bought tickets and planned how to get there, my plan was to float in there slip stream, as things ... read more

The advice I received on Ko Phi Phi was "that is a simple journey with a quick change, easy really, should take about 6 hours". The reality was that after 6 hours we were dumped in a bus station in south Thailand, if in my previous posts I had complained that it was all a bit easy and how everywhere was populated by westerners, I was getting my penance. The bus station was dusty and chaotic, luckily the locals were friendly and helped us through the complicated bus ticket purchasing process, where you queue for a voucher, which you swap for a ticket and then for a boarding pass. I am however pleased that the bus that picks us up is an air conditioned mini bus. Three hours later, after numerous police and army checkpoints, we ... read more

The way that Krabi is often reffered to you would think thatit is a beach destination, instead it is a jump off intersection for people heading on two Kho Phi Phi, Ray Lei, Ao namg and several other favorites. The journey their was by tuk tuk, boat, coach and mini bus, on one of the breraks for change of transport i got talking to two english Ladies in their 50's who were travelling around thailand, as we rolled into Krabi they advised that we would have to get a tuk tuk to the coastal resort of Ao Nang, i asked what it was like they said it was reminiscent of beach towns back home with a string of tourist shops and a Mcdonnalds. With thoughts of the nightmarish Kho San road in mind i opted to ... read more