INDONESIA | Thursday, 14 Aug 2008 | Views [64] | Comments [1]
Kuta / Legian My first impressions of Bali weren't the best - on arriving at 10pm at the hotel, security guards used mirrors to check under the taxi for bombs. Then, after checking in I went for a walk to get something to eat, and in the ... Read more >
Tags: bali
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 16 Jul 2008 | Views [107] | Comments [3]
I spent several days in Perth, mainly taking and uploading photos for iStock, sorting out tickets etc for my next travels, and going out with the guys from the 'Wicked' journey a couple of times. Then had a few days left to quickly see some ... Read more >
Tags: perth, trees, western australia
AUSTRALIA | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [199]
After a few days in Broome, Caroline, Mandy, Becky, Steve and I rented a couple of 'Wicked' camper vans for the journey South towards Perth. Unfortunately, you don't get to choose your van. We were quite happy with ours - swirly patterns and ... Read more >
Tags: western australia, pinnacles, perth, dolphins, shark bay, monkey mia
AUSTRALIA | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [124] | Comments [1]
From Darwin, I joined another Landcruiser based outback tour, this time going to Broome, with an international cast of nine - Becky (England), Caroline (La France), Mandy (Australia), Ruby (Taiwan), Steve (England), Tanam (Switzerland) and Wouter (Holland).... Read more >
Tags: kimberly, western australia, road trip, gibb river road
AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 3 Jun 2008 | Views [314] | Comments [2]
I had five days in Alice, and apart from catching up on sleep, reading and putting pictures onto iStock, I joined Chris and Dave (from the tour up from Adelaide) for meals and a couple of cinema visits. Alice seemed a bit of a strange place. One ... Read more >
Tags: australia, darwin, alice springs, kakadu, litchfield, katherine gorge
AUSTRALIA | Saturday, 17 May 2008 | Views [410] | Comments [10]
After a day and a half of rain, which was so unusual that it made the front page of the papers, Adelaide looked a lot better in the sunshine. The grid of the small city centre is surrounded on all sides by big parks - like a greenbelt right in the ... Read more >
Tags: outback, bush, desert, adelaide, uluru
AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 27 Apr 2008 | Views [256]
Arriving in Australia for the first time, things started well when the beach-babe immigration woman stamped my passport, smiled and said 'see you later' in an enthusiastic Australian voice. Getting from the airport to my city-centre hostel was cheap ... Read more >
Tags: melbourne, great ocean road, grampians, wilsons prom, phillip island
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 12 Apr 2008 | Views [383] | Comments [1]
From Queenstown we headed East across the South Island to Dunedin. The city's name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Gaelic word for 'Edinburgh', and that's not the only thing linking Edinburgh and Dunedin... Dunedin's newspaper is called 'The Edinburgh ... Read more >
Tags: dunedin, kaikoura, napier, dolphins
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 19 Mar 2008 | Views [271]
Kia ora! So after an entertaining day of card games in the backpackers in Marahau while it rained cats and dogs, the next day in Abel Tasman was a mixture of showers and sunshine, and I went for a 'tramp' along another section of coast. ... Read more >
Tags: new zealand, queenstown, fiordland
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 8 Mar 2008 | Views [680] | Comments [3]
Hello!... It's been quite a while since my last blog entry, I've been in NZ since arriving from Singapore a couple of days before Christmas. Christmas with Steve, Jules (my big sister) and Emily was great - delicious steaks on the bbq while wild ... Read more >
Tags: on the road, new zealand, sweet as
SINGAPORE | Monday, 24 Dec 2007 | Views [696] | Comments [7]
I knew I was coming to Singapore during
one of the rainy months, but with three out of the four days I was
there featuring monsoon style rainfall, I felt lucky to have one day
of glorious sunshine. Still, for me, going into the shopping
centres ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
MALAYSIA | Wednesday, 19 Dec 2007 | Views [443] | Comments [2]
Langkawi
Arriving in the dark from the Koh Lipe
ferry, when I found a taxi I was a bit suspicious of the driver's
claims that almost every bed on the island was full. Lankawi is
right up in the north west of the peninsular part of Malaysia, ... Read more >
Tags: On the Road
THAILAND | Friday, 7 Dec 2007 | Views [479] | Comments [2]
Just before leaving Macau I decided to charge up my laptop - a bad decision since after about five minutes there was a short power cut. When the power came back a few seconds later, the laptop was kaput, and making a high pitched whining sound.... Read more >
Tags: Beaches & sunshine
MACAU | Wednesday, 21 Nov 2007 | Views [1144] | Comments [3]
Statue of Hong Kong hero Bruce Lee on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.
After a short and fast train journey from Guangzhou,
I arrived in Kowloon,
just across Victoria Harbour from Hong
Kong Island. So far since leaving Scotland, ... Read more >
Tags: Sightseeing
CHINA | Thursday, 15 Nov 2007 | Views [1467] | Comments [4]
This rabbit above had escaped from a cage outside the restaurant next door, causing much fuss in the mini supermarket! Guilin After arriving and dropping my stuff at the hostel, I went back to the train station to arrange onward tickets, ... Read more >
Tags: Mountains
CHINA | Tuesday, 6 Nov 2007 | Views [780] | Comments [5]
After 12 hours in a constantly stopping, rickety old hard sleeper carriage from Emei to Panzhihua, I met Norwegian Marianne and Dutch Pieter an the start of an 8 hour bumpy bus journey across the mountainous Sichuan-Yunnan border. They were also heading ... Read more >
Tags: Mountains
CHINA | Saturday, 27 Oct 2007 | Views [774] | Comments [3]
Thanks for all the very kind comments, but you'll be glad to know that I'm leaving soon for a mammoth journey to Lijiang (which isn't even very far away), so this one's going to be mainly pictures. Along with the Giant Buddha in Leshan (one of ... Read more >
Tags: On the Road
CHINA | Monday, 22 Oct 2007 | Views [644] | Comments [5]
Telling me
all about China before I
left, Rosie McC said that Xian (Xi'an -
pronounced like Sheean - just a wee city compared to Beijing
and Shanghai,
with only 7 million people!) was a great place, and she wasn't lying! After a few days ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
CHINA | Tuesday, 16 Oct 2007 | Views [718] | Comments [2]
Ni Hao! Arriving in Beijing, I was quite glad that - before leaving the UK - I'd used accumulated Airmiles to book a couple of nights in a hotel. It was well nice to indulge in some 'flashpacking' at the end of all the train journeys from Russia, ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
MONGOLIA | Friday, 5 Oct 2007 | Views [809] | Comments [2]
We arrived
early doors in what is officially the coldest capital city in the world, Ulaanbaatar, and were met
at the station by what was - after plenty dour Russian receptions along the way
- a very welcome warm smile from our lovely Mongolian ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
RUSSIAN FEDERATION | Friday, 5 Oct 2007 | Views [525] | Comments [1]
Four of us
in a kupe cabin (two German guys, Holger and Thomas; one Swedish girl, Eva plus
me) we left Moscow
not long before midnight, with the temperature outside chilly, but swelteringly
hot inside the train - especially for Holger and me on ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
RUSSIAN FEDERATION | Sunday, 23 Sep 2007 | Views [632] | Comments [3]
I'm иow on my last day in Moscow, heading off for the 5,500+ mile train jouяney towards Beijing late tonight. Should get to Beijing in just under two weeks, afteя three nights near Lake Baikal (Eastern Russia), three nights in Mongolia and the rest ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
RUSSIAN FEDERATION | Friday, 21 Sep 2007 | Views [771] | Comments [5]
Arriving With me just slightly concerned about having all the right visas and documentation to satisfy the famously tricky on-train Russian immigration officers, the Finnish train Sibelius rolled gently out of Helsinki at 07.27, bound for St ... Read more >
Tags: Scams & Robberies
FINLAND | Monday, 17 Sep 2007 | Views [355] | Comments [5]
- The cities have lots of good buskers, using all sorts of instuments - trumpets, saxaphones, wine glasses, glockenspiels etc. - The food from kiosks on the street is surprisingly good, but not that cheap. - Coffee is taken quite seriously, and ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
FINLAND | Sunday, 16 Sep 2007 | Views [505] | Comments [2]
WTF
Magazine. Welcome to Finland indeed!
Helsinki seems like a great place, despite
the chilly Baltic wind that blows from time to time.
Having done
some tourist bits on Saturday, I headed out later ... Read more >
Tags: On the Rails
FINLAND | Saturday, 15 Sep 2007 | Views [637] | Comments [2]
Eleven hours for the Viking Line ferry between Stockholm and
Turku seemed excessive, but the reason became clear soon enough - for most of
the way we had to go slowly as our huge ferry negotiated the way through the
huge Stockholm Archipelago ... Read more >
Tags: On the Road
SWEDEN | Wednesday, 12 Sep 2007 | Views [456] | Comments [1]
I arrived
in Stockholm on Monday 10th, and after three
nights here, I'll be leaving very early tomorrow morning to head for Finland on the
ferry. I've been staying in Fridhemsplan
(a few tube stops out), at a massive hostel with several hundred ... Read more >
Tags: On the Road
SWEDEN | Sunday, 9 Sep 2007 | Views [847] | Comments [5]
Haj from Sweden! Actually for some reason they normally say it twice, quickly, sounding like 'Hai Hai'. 'Yu-te-bori' is about the same size as Edinburgh, and is the largest university city in Scandinavia with over 60,000 students. Like Edinburgh ... Read more >
Tags: On the Road
NORWAY | Friday, 7 Sep 2007 | Views [358] | Comments [2]
Oslo
For some
reason, Oslo is
very busy at the moment, and I was struggling to find accommodation, until I
tried the MS Innvik B&B which had a last minute cancellation, so could fit
me in.
The B&B
is on ... Read more >
Tags: Culture
NORWAY | Friday, 7 Sep 2007 | Views [855] | Comments [1]
Day five, and I stayed one night in the tiny Fjord town of Flam (pronounced 'Flom' as it's got dots above the 'a'), having taken the train from Bergen to Voss, the bus from Voss to Gudvangen - down the steepest road in Norway apparently, and then two ... Read more >
Tags: Mountains
NORWAY | Friday, 7 Sep 2007 | Views [526]
Hei! from Norway... Getting off the overnight ferry from Newcastle and arriving in pouring rain in Bergen (this is a city where it rains for 275 days per year), I found my hostel, dumped my stuff and hit the mean streets. My first task was to ... Read more >
Tags: Mountains
UNITED KINGDOM | Sunday, 5 Aug 2007 | Views [422] | Comments [6]
Hello! This is really just a test post & picture, as I've not actually left Edinburgh yet. Got just one week left at work, and then just over a fortnight in Scotland before I hit the road, getting the ferry from Newcastle to Bergen (Norway) on ... Read more >
Tags: The Planning Phase
