Flying in to Phnom Phen we realised that during the monsoon season Cambodia resembles a giant puddle. The land is flat and the rain leaves so much of it flooded. The upside is an abundance of rice and freshwater fish, two of the very few reasons the people here have to be contented. Cambodia is a country with a bleak history of conflict, chaos and extreme cruelty to the ordinary peasants most notably at the hands of the despicable nerk Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge. Corruption and political unrest remain common place. So many victims of landmines, some missing limbs others with horrific burns cast a grim reminder of their troubled past and the legacy of such a cruel and paranoid regime. Begging is prolific especially amongst the children who will often threaten to cry ... read more

by caroline. Salam, After arriving late into Bali we hit the sack ready to find our bearings tomorrow. The next few days we spend sorting our trip to Flores, making sure we draw enough cash as ATM's are few and far between over there. We're hoping to have some chill out time on the beach, unfortunately the beaches are pretty poor but we did find a great bar called Paradise. After talking to Peter we decide to take an over land trip for four days. Our driver is Robert he reminds me of Eddie Murphy when he smiles. The trip involves of a lot of driving on very poor roads which makes the going very slow. After 9 hrs we arrive in Bajawa, everyone is very friendly, though the air is much cooler up here, glad ... read more

Kia ora Since leaving home in november I had managed to lose 7kgs in weight, I'd had my hair cropped, I had started to wear bracelets and had developed a habit of calling everyone dude. I was, I decided, a true nomad. Caroline however, apart from losing some weight had'nt become as shallow as me and remained the same as ever. 6th March 2006 We arrived in Auckland at lunchtime. Donna and Vance, are friends from our South American travels were there to meet us. They drove us to Taupo where we spent three days with them staying at Donna's folks (Keren and Brian) hotel. They made us feel really welcome. Donna and Vance did their tour guide duties very well and we had a great night out with them and Donna's sister Kylie and her ... read more

by tim After six and a half weeks we finally arrived in Rio. Nine Dragoman/Encounter trucks carrying 120 people had descended from all over South America on the Hotel Paysandu. Our first night there was the Red and Black ball. This we had been pre-warned was an event which saw several thousand people dressed in Red and Black converge on a nightclub called the Scala club. The point of it was fairly obscure apart from the fact that the woman generally got mauled by the local bloke's. I was'nt really looking forward to it but it was just one of those things we felt we had to do. The first few hours were as expected, my worst nightmare. The place was packed with blokes just out for a cheap thrill. Caroline and Precious, dressed in minimilistic ... read more

by tim We arrived back in Caracas to join our Dragoman group on the 18th Dec. Dragoman is the tour company and they specialise in overland trips all over the world. They supply us as a group a purpose built truck which is kitted out with everything we need to be self sufficient, a tour leader ( Svava ) and a co-driver ( AJ ). Svava and AJ's job is to get us from A to B, sort out campsite/ hostel accommodation, keep the truck maintained and generally oversea the day to day running of the trip. Everything else is done by the passengers from managing the kitty, shopping and cooking to cleaning the truck. Everybody gets allocated a job which can be kitty manager, bar manager, security, set up ( cooking equipmant etc ), ... read more