Well, home at last! At this stage, I have very mixed feelings about being back in Australia. Whilst I did have times during my trip that I wished I was home, these feelings tended to be infrequent and passed relatively quickly. I did have a great time travelling - meeting new people, seeing and experiencing something new each and every day. Still, all good things must come to an end and it is time for me to start replenishing my bank accounts given the severe thrashing they have taken over the past 6 months. On the positive side, in the 2 weeks I have been home…. § I have managed to catch up with a few of my friends and some of my family and that really has been great. I am really looking forward to ... read more

After arriving in Beijing without accommodation pre-arranged (sounding like a pattern to you?), I was lucky enough to find a hotel reservation desk at the Beijing train station and was checked into a relatively nice hotel room close to a major shopping area by 8 am! After wandering the local area all day, I went and met my Dad at the Beijing airport. He was able to join me for the final 2 weeks of my trip and China had always been Dad’s dream destination so this opportunity was perfect. After too little sleep, we spent our first full day in Beijing wandering around Tiananmen Square (including Mao’s mausoleum) and the Forbidden City (that place just goes on and on and on and on.......). Next day, we hit the ‘Pearl’ Market (lots of fresh fish and ... read more

Well, my entree into mainland China was both interesting and exciting. Travel advice from Hong Kong with regards to any travel except flying was minimal so I arrived at Shenzhen (the border of Hong Kong and mainland China) a little after midday in the hope of getting an overnight train or bus to Yangshuo. And I should have studied up on my mandarin before getting here.......unfortunately, I still have Arabic floating through my brain so trying to ask for a ticket and what time I will arrive at my destination was all too much. Thankfully there were a few bilingual Chinese passengers to help me out with my bus ticket. As time has gone by since then, I have started to remember and learn phrases that get me by. In particular, I have become addicted to ... read more

Ahhhhhh Egypt ....... Now I know I should start this blog with tales of the fantastic temples I visited, the Pyramids of Giza, the 2 days sailing on a felucca down the Nile, but, no, I want to open with tales of transportation! .........And I thought playing in the traffic in Rome was fun! Rome has absolutely nothing on Cairo. The drivers are completely crazy, lane markings on roads are non-existent or ignored (if 5 cars can physically fit across 3 lanes then there will be 5 lanes of vehicles!), and all cars, especially taxis, are very battered (and as Sherif said to me, "if a car does not have dents, it has just come out of the showroom"). To get on and off public buses requires skills in jumping to/from a moving vehicle without being ... read more

The title of this blog is the same as the bumper sticker on one of the land cruisers my tour group spent the best part of week travelling around in and it truly became our motto for the week. There was never a hurry and there was never a problem ("hakuna matata")! I have excluded the details of the first 36 hours in Africa (from my arrival in Nairobi through to my entry into Tanzania) from this blog simply because it was entirely painful - switching hotels, transfers not on time etc. Thankfully, once in Tanzania, the trip was very smooth. My tour group included me, 2 Americans and 5 Canadians so it was small but relatively cohesive group. And just so many highlights to share. We visited Lake Manyara for our first safari and saw ... read more