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April 7th 2007
Chongqing to Chengdu Matt and Ed Matt: After four days of singing, dancing and drinking our way down the Yangtze, we were woken for the final time by the chimes of our cabin tannoy followed by a couple of lines of Chinese and (apparently) an English translation. Ed (who has become an expert in Chinglish), explained that the message had announced our arrival in the city of Chongqing and told us that we were being booted off the MV Emperor. I groaned, and through a half opened eye, peered out of our porthole only to be depressed by what lay beyond. Chongqing definitely would not win any beauty contests! Its 32 million residents cling precariously to the sides of several rocky mountains that drop steeply into the brown polluted waters of the Yangtze. Apart from ... read more
Gorging on Gorgeous Gorges on the Yangtze
Published: April 6th 2007Asia » China » Yunnan » Yangtze River
April 6th 2007
Shanghai to Yichang, Fendu and Chongqing Matt and Edurl='/Videos/2636.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2636.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;' Matt doing the Time Warp Ed: I’m turning 30 this year. So you would think in that time I would have learnt a thing or two about responsible drinking. Alas, our last night in Shanghai proved me wrong. By the time we had bonded with some expats over a few (and I don’t use the term lightly) vodka, lime and sodas over five hours into the late evening (or morning?), someone amongst our new made friends suggested we do a round of shots. Now to the responsible drinker, this would have been the moment to pull the rip cord, raise the white flag, and cut and run back to our hotel given we had a flight the following morning. But to your author, this ... read more
April 2nd 2007
London to Shanghai Matt and Ed Matt: I’m not sure where my desire to visit China really came from. It may have been images of Great Walls, Giant Pandas, Terrocotta Warriors or Communist Dictators. More likely though, it was probably just the opportunity to taste duck in any flavour that was the clincher. Either way, Ed and I now find ourselves travelling around this enormous country on our way back home to Australia. Our flight from Heathrow to Shanghai was surprising comfortable. This was thanks in large part to my mother’s medicine cabinet which had supplied us with a stock of magic purple pills (it seems that while I’ve been away, mum has moved into dealing). I popped one somewhere over the Baltic and woke up seven hours later, having skipped the whole of Russia. ... read more
October 22nd 2006
Matt: Don’t you find it annoying when you go out for a drink with a few mates and the conversation turns to something you can’t contribute to? Whether it is a movie you haven’t been to, a song you haven’t heard or a current event that you haven’t read up on, I always find myself sitting back, sighing obviously and waiting for the conversation to turn to something a little more to my tastes (like Brangelina or Lost or Daniel Craig). Over the past year for Ed and me, two subjects have stood out as complete tune-outs: the Ashes (I try, but I just don’t get it) and Croatia. Croatia is THE destination in Europe at the moment. Actually - more specifically - Croatia is THE destination in Europe amongst our circle of friends at the ... read more
No Chocolate Fondue in Switzerland!!!
Published: December 14th 2006Europe » Switzerland » North-West » Lucerne
October 15th 2006
Ed: Having not spent nearly enough time with Annette and Paul gallivanting across Scotland and the Greek islands, we decided to go back for more and meet them for the weekend in Lucerne (have I mentioned how much I love living in London?) We almost made a major blunder when booking the flights - for some reason we thought Lausanne was the same place as Lucerne. Before you rush to judge, note that the Swiss have like 28 official languages so we’d assumed it was the same place just written in different languages. It’s a simple mistake - try saying them both out loud and you will see! Luckily we double checked and realised just before shelling out £200 for non refundable flights. Phew! Anyway, we flew into Zurich on the Friday evening, and decided to ... read more
Three Men and a Lady in the Greek Islands
Published: December 14th 2006Europe » Greece » South Aegean
October 3rd 2006
Annette: Like Christopher, I have been delegated to write about our Greek Odyssey with the boys. Everybody who’s anybody knows that Greece has always been like the Holy Grail to me. Finally, with Ed, Matt and Paul in tow we set out on this journey of self discovery! After a semi teary goodbye to Christopher, we set out for the train ride to Luton airport which was pretty uneventful. That all changed when we arrived and our Easyjet flight had been replaced with Air Finland. The plane looked like something left over from WWII, with broken seats and threadbare carpet! Not very reassuring! And upon looking out the window, we discovered we could see not one, but HEAPS of other planes zooming by far too close for comfort! Now I’m not religious by any means, but ... read more
A Scottish Reunion! Five on the Road
Published: December 14th 2006Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Midlothian » Edinburgh
September 26th 2006
Christopher: After having visited so many places, it should come as no surprise that Ed and Matt are finding it hard to find the time to write their blogs. So they’ve delegated the task of writing about Scotland to me. After spending 2 weeks staying with the boys (see Brighton and Bath entries) I spent 5 weeks travelling around the continent and returned just in time to join them on a Scottish odyssey. Two other friends of ours from Sydney, Annette and Paul, had also just arrived in London so it was something of a reunion. Back home we all spent a lot of time together and had missed each other terribly, so we were all excited to have this chance to both catch up and travel together. I figured, with us all cashed up and ... read more
The Irrepressible Hills of Tuscany and Revenge of the Roman Driver
Published: December 14th 2006Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome
September 8th 2006
Matt: After a two day entrée of gorgeous panoramas, cute villages and (of course) amazing pizza and pasta, mum, Ed and I had arranged to gorge ourselves stupid on a main course of four days in Tuscany and Rome. After shedding a tear for Steve Irwin on the streets of Montorosso (thank you mum!), we caught a train to La Spezia - the nearest main city - to pick up our car. From there, we drove directly to Lucca, an old walled city on the edge of the rolling Tuscan hills. There we introduced mum to our patented hour long town tours: head for the largest spire in town, check out the church, grab a coffee, take a few choice photos and get the hell out within 60 minutes (after spending more than a year in ... read more
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