Celebrate our 'Travi-versary' with us. We've crossed the SIX-MONTH mark and still going strong. Plus, our travelblog has surpassed 20,000 hits. Thanks to you all!!! It really wasn't the intention to arrive in Yangshuo at 4:25 am. Believe us, it wasn't! We had taken the first bus out of Zhuhai and that's just how it worked out. But now we had already covered 1.5 km on a totally unfamiliar road with no end in sight. The road had a sprinkling of street lights and a generous amount of st [View Full Entry]

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The Gongbei Port was a massive, modern complex spanning the Pearl River and connecting tiny Macau to the humungous mainland of China. And it was up its stairs and thru its corridors that we had shuffled in a veritable sea of Chinese in our quest to access the mainland. The crisp green uniforms with dazzling gold shoulder pips somehow made the officers appear more efficient and unapproachable. Shanna breezed thru immigration but the officers wanted a closer look at Vibert's passport. An immigration officer led Vibert into a small, barricaded area guarded by tough-looking, crew-cut ge [View Full Entry]

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"Aaaaah, Macau, Macau!! Twenty-eight-square-km Macau!! How have you grown? I remember you at 23 km. Macanese recall you being just 8 to begin with. I hardly recognize you Macau. So much has changed." Shanna unconsciously reminisced aloud. She had studied in Macau in 2000 and now, seven years later, she was about to set foot again on a place she loved. Vibert peered thru the water-stained glass of the luxury ferry watching a mammoth bridge span a huge expanse of water. The ferry docked. It was almost dark outside the terminal. Ludi had come to get us. A native of Guinea-Bis [View Full Entry]

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The plane had something we had never experienced before. A live feed from some external camera broadcast in real time the takeoff from London Gatwick. And as the sparkle of a million lights disappeared into darkness and in-flight entertainment commenced, we settled in for a long flight. Three movies, dinner, several hours of sleep, more movies, more food, chat and sleep and we still had 4 hours to go. The feed appeared again but it was all gray this time. Our anxiety rose higher and higher with every inch the plane descended. We couldn't spot the runway. Thru the gray cloud [View Full Entry]

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Question: If all you had was six hours in London, where would you go and what would you do? The bus from Cardiff deposited us in London a little after 6 pm. Rawle, a friend of Dawn and Tyrone and a Guyanese national working and studying in England, had agreed to put us up for the night. From the Coach Station we followed Rawle's direction and rode the Green Line from the Victoria Underground to Turham Green. Rawle met us at the station, took us to his place and prepared a fast and tasty bachelor's chowmein. We had never met Rawle [View Full Entry]

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The sky was bright blue. The sun was out. Our spirits were high. But then the pilot started the descent and the BMI Baby plane shuddered before breaking free of the thick, dark clouds. So much for 'the hottest British summer yet'. Touchdown! We were back in Wales. Being the ultimate 'cheapies', we just simply couldn't resist being lured back by the promise of cheaper flights to exotic locations. Vibert rode upfront with Tyrone and Shanna climbed into the backseat with Ebony and re-started the same endless chatter from a month ago. Building upon our experience in Cr [View Full Entry]

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Two hours regular ('regular' = 120 km/h) driving in a southerly direction moved us from Amsterdam, cross an invisible border and into Belgium. We were on a three-day road trip with Mama Marcia and Ton and Brussels was within our sights. But Ton insisted that Arthur, an old friend, was the ideal person to demo the city to us. Arthur was easy to like. He was a smart older man with an awefully funny dry sense of humor. His sharp, inquisitive eyes surveyed us thru big spectacles. Arthur was driving now and he pulled up in front of 'The Atom' - [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam became 'jump street' for exploring Holland and beyond. With Antonio at the wheel and Mama Marcia riding co-pilot we took to the 'snelweg' at different times and to different destinations. With the cramp, crowds and chaos of Amsterdam far behind we drove thru never-ending farmlands with tulip-filled greenhouses and black-and-white cows miniaturized in the distance. In this blog we chronicle our visits to a few rather memorable attractions. ZAANSE SCHANS A vast expanse of land turned museum, Zaanse Schans displayed quite possibly the only things more 'Holland [View Full Entry]

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The prefecture of Hania seemed to have some magnetic presence. It didn't want to let us go. We had already spent 5 of our 11 days. Determined to break Hania's hold, we took to the highway heading east. But highway driving was boring and we longed for those heart-warming little villages. We detoured thru Armeni and on thru Agia Pantes before arriving at Vrisses. The main attraction here should have been the rivers Voutakas and Vrysanos which flowed thru the center but these were now disappointing streams and stagnant puddles. But there was a good ambiance and fabulous shade fr [View Full Entry]

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It made perfect sense, from any angle. Renting a car, that is. Yesterday's adventure to and from Samaria Gorge had collectively cost us €32 in transportation alone. And that was just about the daily rental price. Plus, it would be impossible to do Crete justice by public transportation because of its size and topography And so, into our lives came IEK-2400 - a fiesty little silver Opel Corsa. And, right then and there, our Crete experience morphed into a totally unique and unexpected affair. Besides holding the record for smoking the most cigarettes of any EU country, Gr [View Full Entry]

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