Global Sights & Beer Tour

Gallery: Thailand

andyandsam — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 23:49:00 GMT

23rd JULY - 31st JULY

andyandsam — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 23:34:00 GMT

Bangkok was a very welcomed section of the trip. Andy and I had already decided we were going to use our time here to chill out, have a few beers, lots of sleep and fit in the odd bit of sightseeing.

When we arrived in Thailand, we were greeted with the most incredible storm. The skies above Bangkok were so dark, it felt like night and the bolt lightening had the power of the Gods behind it. The rain fell as if we were stood under Niagara Falls! When the bus dropped us off near the infamous Khao San Road in Bangkok (backpacker central with lots of bars, shops and cheap hotels), we decided to sit the storm out with a beer. Storms and beers became the two constants during our stay in this entertaining city.

When the rain stopped and we decided to get on the move, we had our first experience of the ‘tuk tuk’ drivers in Bangkok. These guys are relentless and aggressive salesman, and some can be devious in their tactics. No day out in Bangkok would be complete without questions like “where you from?”, “what’s your name?”, “where you go mister?”, “why not want tuk tuk?”, “why you walk?”, “I take you round city for $10”, “Later I come get you?” Initially, we found it exhausting having the same discussion countless times within the space of an hour, but eventually we became conveniently deaf, and found being rude actually quite satisfying!

We stayed on a really nice street called Soi Rambutri only a couple of minutes walk from Khao San Road with lots of cheap restaurants and internet cafes. We found a new build hotel at $28 dollars a night for a beautifully decorated room with great air con, satellite TV, fridge and a balcony overlooking the temple across the street and the city beyond.

The Thai people are very patriotic and place their King on a pedestal. In the airport, in the streets, in the restaurants and bars we saw portraits of the Royal family adorning the walls. This year, the King turns 80so the locals (men and women both) were mostly wearing bright yellow t-shirts with logos like “Long Live the King”. It seemed only fitting therefore, to show my support and buy my own sunshine t-shirt! This behaviour is just so typical of the Thai personality, they are a warm nation and having a predominantly Buddhist population, are peaceful and very spiritual. Indeed, we witnessed the family of our hotel sending one of their boys off to become a monk. Wow! What a celebration! It was a big street party that went on into the night, then resumed at around 7am in the morning until he entered the doors of the monastery that afternoon! There was lots of singing, dancing, music and of course drinking, mostly of the local whiskey Sang Som (lethal stuff that was responsible for Andy and I losing more than a couple of hours of memory during our stay in Bangkok!).

Bangkok has something for everyone, there are beautiful temples, great food, lots of shopping and of course a lively nightlife including the infamous “Patpong” District where for a small fee you can watch girlies use their squirrelly bits in the most unusual manner! Here are some of the highlights for Andy and I:

Grand Palace and Temples: This was quite a large complex housing the palace and a vast array of temples. The thing that struck us both in the eyes like a sharp stick was just how colourful and how ornately decorated every temple was. In Andy’s words “it was flirting on the fine line between tasty cultural monument and psychedelic seventies LSD trip!” We found ourselves really impressed with the mosaics and artwork of individual temples but felt perhaps someone should have shouted “less really is more!” The Palace housed a reasonable armoury display, and lots of cabinets with crockery once used by the Royal household – which was nice!

PatPong District: Andy was in Bangkok 8 years ago and visited this area with his travel buddy Jay and assured me that no visit to Bangkok would be complete without a visit to the ping pong clubs!! He was absolutely right I came away feeling like I’d had an out of body experience! When we arrived at one of these clubs, we haggled hard on entry fee before being lead through a very unassuming café and up some stairs to the club. After picking up our free double Sang Som and coke from the ‘madam’, we went in and found ourselves some front row seats between an aging American getting his tackle groped by two young Thai girls and a group of Thai women who looked like they were in the West End! We sat and watched (with equal amounts of shock and admiration) young ladies parade about on stage naked using their squirrelly bits to smoke cigarettes, store things like strings of razor blades and luminous butterflies and of course fire ping pong balls into a small glass – the house speciality and what the district has become famous for. Just as we thought things couldn’t get more bizarre, Andy was given a signed autograph by one of the girls on stage. This may sound innocent enough but let me tell you, she wasn’t holding the pen with her fingers!! Surprisingly good penmanship though, the cursive text was fabulous (said autograph will be on display in our future bar for those of you curious (or pervy) enough to view)! The final act for us was the choreographed live sex show. Of course we watched (rude not too) but decided to make a hasty retreat when all the girls returned to the stage for the punters to get to know them a little more ‘intimately’! It was an incredible experience that left me staggered, speechless, and feeling slightly inadequate!

Ayuthaya: This small town was the capital of Thailand for 417 years (ending1767). It sits about 2 ½ hours North of Bangkok. We visited two huge reclining Buddha statues and a plethora of seated Buddha, all covered in wonderful orange silks. We went on to see a large bronze Buddha, which was covered in intricate gold leaf. We then visited a number of temples, which were fashioned in a similar style to Angkor in Cambodia. Alas, these were not quite as well preserved as those of Angkor, having been ravaged by Time and War over the years. They were impressive structures none the less however, and managed to steal many hours of our imagination.

Kanchanaburi Floating Market: We took a long boat and cruised along canals, which took us through water streets of stilted houses until we reached the floating market. Here we found the waterways gridlocked with small boats selling all manner of food, drinks, souvenirs, novelties and party tricks! Alongside the canals were also static shops, which we found to be an incredible tourist trap. Prices were often 100% higher than those of Bangkok! We just took in the colours and the smells and the noise of the place before heading off to the River Kwai.

River Kwai: We thought it seemed only right to visit the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai whilst in Thailand. Before taking a stroll over the bridge, we stopped into the Death Railway Museum. This gave us insight into the awful way in which the Japanese treated the WWII POWs, during the construction of the 415 km rail link to Burma. It’s estimated that over 100,000 men died through disease, starvation and exhaustion. We took a stroll over the bridge, a large part of which is still the original structure, the rest replaced following Allied bombings. We were saddened when we read that the Japanese placed POWs on the bridge in efforts to stop the Allies from dropping bombs. Alas, the bombs were still dropped and many 1000s of men were killed by their own countrymen.

Tiger Temple: The Buddhist monks here offer their temple as a sanctuary to tigers that have been mistreated, or have been rescued from poachers seeking to sell them on the black market. The monastery does not get any government funding so relies upon those visiting the temple and charitable donations to house and care for the tigers. The place is in fact, an animal sanctuary. There are all manner of beasts wandering around the temple complex from donkeys to warthogs! The main attraction of course, is the ‘Tiger Canyon’, where you can meet and stroke tigers. We were taken by the hand and led to each of the 8 tigers in turn. We were allowed to bend down and stroke each of them. The fur was actually rather coarse but not surprisingly their claws were big and their muscular frame a little intimidating! One of the tigers I was stroking rolled over for a belly scratch, and as he stretched his paws out, I got full sight of his huge claws. Andy was stroking another that decided to get up and turn around to face him. The handler quickly withdrew Andy to another tiger! As beautiful as these creatures are, a reminder you must always be on your guard. It was a fabulous experience to be up close to one of Nature’s most beautiful creatures.

We really enjoyed Bangkok and our little jollies out of the city. If we’d have had the time, we would have loved to spend time on the coast also. There is so much of the weird and wonderful to see, a lot of history, a beautiful culture to experience and a very warm welcome. It’s a tourist’s ‘Mecca’. The Thai people speak wonderful English and they cater for every need. It’s a very easy holiday in a very exotic destination.

Gallery: Cambodia

andyandsam — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 00:53:00 GMT

15th JULY - 23rd JULY

andyandsam — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 00:46:00 GMT

We knew very little of Cambodia, our decision to go was based solely on the want to visit Angkor, a site in the North West of the country, which used to be the centre of power for the Khmer Empire between the 11^th and 15^th century AD. We had been told of magnificent temples hidden within the overgrown jungle that surrounded Angkor and thought it a fitting part of our trip.

The Cambodians speak very good English, thereby making it very easy for Westerners to visit the country. This is no accident given the American occupation of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and more recently the steady increase in backpackers and tourists visiting the country. Some also speak very good French, a legacy of the French occupation and rule of Cambodia until 1953.

When we arrived in Cambodia, we had little expectations of the public transportation system. We had readied ourselves for a struggle and for the potential of sitting on chicken buses with the locals and their livestock and worldly wares for some very long hot and sticky hours! Actually, instead we found bus travel between the cities in Cambodia incredibly efficient and comfortable! There were a plethora of companies to choose from, regular services and air con’d buses (well air vents anyways), and cheap – wow! For example, we paid $4 dollars each to travel 6 hours from Phnom Penh (the capital city) to Siem Reap (where Angkor is). These services are used primarily by the locals so it’s a great way to throw yourself into the Cambodian experience, particularly when the bus makes it toilet breaks, and you find yourself squatting with the best of them!! Of course, if this all seems a bit much, you can catch the Mekong Express, a ‘VIP’ service, which has trolley dolly service and a toilet on board. So much for third world country!

The food in Cambodia was absolutely fabulous, and very healthy. We ate lots of fish, chicken, vegetables, noodles, sticky rice and fruit. A key favourite for us was the Fish Amok – a spicy fish curry with a sweet coconut sauce, sometimes served in a banana leaf. Of course, this isn’t to say that the weird and wonderful doesn’t exist. Cambodians love to fry up spiders and scorpions, locusts and crickets. Indeed, on our bus journeys the locals were eating snack size bags of bugs as we tucked into our bags of crisps! Our healthy diet was however, somewhat counteracted by our beer intake! Cambodia has some fabulous beers so when they were averaging $0.50 a bottle, it would be a crime not to partake!

Cambodia has had a bloody past. Whilst the West enjoyed the free loving seventies, Cambodians experienced civil war and the Vietnamese conflict. They also suffered through the oppressive rule of the Khmer Rouge where over 2 million people were believed to have died from executions, disease, exhaustion and starvation. During this time, children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labour camps. Factories and schools, universities and hospitals were shut down. Professional people in any field (including the army) were murdered, together with their extended families. Religion and even music and radio sets were banned!

Even after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, the people continued to suffer with little international aid getting through and the Khmer Rouge desperately trying to regain power with guerrilla tactics and planting landmines all over Cambodia. It was only in 1993 did a formally elected government start to take control again overseen by a UN peace keeping force.

This troubled past is still haunting Cambodia today with many parts of the country still covered in active land mines that have and are still claiming their victims limbs or lives. The country is showing positive signs of growth but people are still without jobs and often turning themselves or their families to crime and prostitution. So, when you get such a warm welcome and find people trying to be innovative to make a dollar, its hard not to feel touched by such a powerful spirit. Andy and I felt incredibly compelled to help where we could so bought local wares and donated money to a local charity, gave cash to landmine victims, food to children and ate in restaurants where profits go towards projects keeping street kids out of crime and prostitution.

So to the key sights:

Angkor: A big phat WOW!!! We managed to fill two full days hopping from temple to temple and still there were so many others that we did not get to see. To set the scene, you do not actually stay in Angkor, there is a little town near the site called Siem Reap. It’s incredibly touristy (Angkor is very popular with tour groups from Thailand) but has a good vibe and feels very chilled. We liked it. Angkor itself is a huge archaeological park set within the jungle. It was really quite a wonderful to drive through dense jungle on our little ‘tuk tuk’, seeing monkeys playing, hearing birds singing and visiting old temples (or ‘wats’ as they are referred to in Asia). Of all the temples we visited (including the infamous Angkor Wat), Andy’s favourite was the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom. The temple walls and columns/pillars were covered in large stone faces. Some were in fantastic condition and really made you appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship of the stone masons some 900 years ago. What really struck us as we sat taking in the beauty of the temple was just how many faces started to come out of the rock the longer you looked. Whilst a lot had been ravaged by Nature, some 217 of them originally covered the temple inside and out! For me, I was blown away by Ta Prohm. It was by no means as ornate or as big as Bayon, but its beauty came from the effects of Time. Everywhere you looked Mother Nature had spread her fingers with colossal tree roots and vine systems enveloping and crumbling the temple walls. The green moss, which blanketed most of the stone, was just so lush that it seemed to give the temple life. It was a very magical place, made even more incredible by a tropical storm, which hit when we were at the site. The fierce rain really seemed to invigorate the place, giving it a life line. Really fabulous.

Killing Fields: This was a very sobering and emotional experience. In the morning, we took a tuk tuk to see the ‘Killing Fields’ of Choeung Ek. This is where the Khmer Rouge massacred c17000 people between 1975 and 79. Men, women and children were bludgeoned to death (they didn’t want to waste bullets) then thrown into mass graves. At the site, a memorial has been erected, which contains the skulls and the clothing of victims exhumed from 86 of the 129 mass graves. We shook our heads and feel sick as we paid our respects. You could see that all the skulls had fractures where they had been beaten to death. Around the memorial are the pits, which acted as the mass graves. For us, the most sickening pit was one where 126 babies had been discovered. These poor children had been beaten to death against a nearby tree. It was absolutely horrific.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum: Following our visit to the Killing Fields, we went back to Phnom Penh and got dropped off at the Tuol Sleng Museum. Originally, this building had been a school but the Khmer Rouge changed all of that, turning it into interrogation centre and prison called Security Office 21 (S-21). Standing empty now, it’s a haunting reminder of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. When S-21 was found after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, there were still mutilated bodies chained to metal bed frames. Photos were taken of these sorry individuals and now hang as a tragic memorial in the rooms where they had been tortured to death. As we stood staring at both these and the metal bad frames left in Block A, we were sickened that human beings could be capable of such carnage, Once we had read the stories of some of S-21 survivors and looked into the eyes of the victims who had died here, we felt emotionally drained and only begin to imagine how the Cambodians must feel.

Sihanoukville: This is Cambodia’s main beach resort on the South coast. Andy and I stayed on Serendipity Beach – a back packers area away from the main town. A good choice because the beach was great and the water was clean, and we managed to get ourselves a little beach bungalow for about $15 a night. In the evening, the place had a wonderfully relaxed feel to it, we ate and drank cocktails on the beach into the night. During the day, was an experience! We were offered jewellery, books, massage, manicures, pedicures, hair removal, the list goes on!! For a good part of the day, we had someone sitting at the bottom of our sun loungers doing a relentless sales job! For the most part though, they were pretty good fun with it, and eventually buggered off, especially the kids when you gave them a few sweeties!

We really felt like we needed so much more time in Cambodia, not only to see more of the country but also to soak up the hospitality of its people. They have a wonderful spirit and you want to help contribute to their country’s growth. We would strongly advise everyone to put Cambodia in your travel plans. You will be welcomed with open arms. It’s a beautiful place and it needs help to rise out of the shadows of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.

21st JUNE - 14th JULY

andyandsam — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:17:00 GMT

When we left for China, I had no idea what to expect. Andy had warned me it would be like nothing like I’ve experienced before, and he could not have been more right! When you think of China, you imagine copious amounts of food like you find down your local Chinese takeaway, lots of tourist tat clearing stating “Made in China”, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee wannabes adorning every street corner, and maybe some Ninjas jumping around a vast array of quintessential roof tops like you’ve seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon! Obviously, this is a bit tongue in cheek but really, it’s a country that surprises, often leaves you speechless, sometimes frustrated but more often than not really pleased you’ve experienced it.

Our biggest challenge was the language. There is little in the way of English outside of the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing so the logisitics of getting around and feeding ourselves were increased expedientially! Every train ticket booking was an adventure, and every meal ordered an experience. Fortunately, luck was on our side and we managed to get around pretty well, but we were not so lucky on the food front and ended up with either strange meat that looked like your dead pet, or food that looked identifiable but quickly turned to fluid in our intestinal tract!

Chinese cuisine is not quite the takeaway down the end of your road in the UK. In China, all parts of the animal/insect are cooked, and generally if it moves it will be turned into a meal. There is considerable choice so long as you are prepared to be adventurous. For example, you might want to give duck tongues a go, chicken gizzards or feet, or maybe the intestines of a frog. It’s all here for the discerning palette. If you want a chicken breast fried rice or sweet and sour roast pork then you would have to hope for a restaurant with sympathy for the western palette! That said, there are certain national dishes which are just divine. We developed a strong love for the Chinese dumpling – a small dough ball filled with minced pork, or veggies amongst other things. They were fabulous, and only needed a little soy sauce for dipping.

China is a Communist country, and the grand daddy of that movement here was Chairman Mao. Whilst Mao has been dead now for over 30 years, his legacy still lives on and the Mao personality cult is strong. As you travel around, there is certainly a sense of “Big Brother” watching over you. Around Beijing for example, particularly around Tianamen Square, there is CCTV, a strong police presence and armored vehicles parked up. It is obvious that the government do not want a repeat of the tragic student demonstrations, which occurred back in 1989. Even, near the countdown clock for the Olympic Games next year, where China will open its doors to the world, there are guards to stop you getting to close!

The irony is that Communism is supposed to consider all people within the Republic equal, but it is quite clear in China that some people are definitely more equal than others. In the major cities, there is stark wealth sitting pompous and proud along the impoverished and the hungry. There are cranes supporting new builds all over the cities, yet in the shadows of all this growth are people living in derelict buildings turning their living areas into makeshift street kitchens.

It will be interesting to see how they support the Olympic Games next year. At the moment, the government appears to be spending a considerable amount of the national wealth on updating the infrastructure in Beijing, and renovating the historical monuments, temples and palaces.

So, to the people. Andy and I spent our first day in Tianamen Square, what most would consider as a significant tourist attraction in China. I started to notice that some of the Chinese were pointing their cameras in our general direction, then noticed that some Chinese folk actually stood near us whilst a fellow countryman took a photo! This behavior was a little disconcerting at first, but soon became the accepted norm. You have to start considering yourself as the “Westerner traveling sideshow” and like any self respecting freak expect the attention that comes with being somewhat different! Having spoken to some Chinese guys and gals on our long train journeys, it became very obvious that many have never actually seen a westerner, let alone speak with one, so we fast became public exhibit A and B. You never felt alone, because every street walked down, you were guaranteed a song of “hellos”, the familiar sound of mobile phone cameras, and the odd brave soul approaching to practice their English! Indeed, teaching English and practicing conversation could have been a lucrative little earner for our traveling freakshow – everyone is desperate to learn. I have to say that on the whole, we found the Chinese people to be incredibly hospitable. There is a significant language barrier but this did not deter their want to help. Indeed, we often attracted a small crowd when asking directions with each person keen to do their bit in helping us find our way!

Our journey covered only a small area of China, yet we did over 50 hours on a train to get around. Our longest journey was from Xian to Shanghai, which took 20 hours. We opted for the soft and hard sleeper on all of our journeys. This means getting a bunk rather than a seat and given the length of our journeys, this seemed preferable. The soft sleepers were great you were in a cabin with 4 bunks all nicely decorated with lots of room to sit and sleep and eat. It made the long journeys very comfortable. So, when we could not get a soft sleeper for the first time, and had to rely on the hard sleeper, I was really nervous. In my head, I had images of feeling like a POW squeezed into a cattle truck on small uncomfortable hard bunks with lots of sweaty bodies all around me! Infact, we had the same comfortable bunks as the soft sleeper just less head room because 3 bunks were in place of two, and there was no cabin, just long corridors of bunks. More like a dorm than a POW cattle truck.

So to the key things we saw and loved:

The Forbidden City/Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace: These are 3 key sights in Beijing and each is a colourful reminder of China’s imperial past. You cannot help but fall in love with the extraordinary rainbow used to decorate these buildings. Deep red is the signature colour with vivid blues, greens and gold added for detail. Every temple, pagoda and palace has been lovingly decorated and meticulously restored (or is in the process of being restored). You cannot help but marvel at how much wealth and how much power the Emperors wielded because the opulence of these sights is right there in your face. Indeed one such Empress (Cixi), was so extravagant that she employed over 3000 seamstresses just to make her intricately decorated silk socks (a kind of Chinese shoe). Amelda Marcos – in your face!!

We visited the Simitai section of the Great Wall because it is the steepest and has seen the least restoration, so it is still in its raw form and very rugged, indeed somewhat treacherous in places where you have to climb up on all fours because of the incline! This did have the advantage of deterring large tour groups though so you felt like you had the wall all to your self. It was a truly amazing experience to stand on such an magnificent representation of man’s achievements, and the views were to die for.

The Terracotta Warriors were as spectacular as expected. There are several sites which have been excavated since 1975, but the most impressive is enclosure 1 where over 6000 warriors stand proud, all individually designed to reflect the Emperors guard of the time. To accompany the warriors are horses and weapons. There were also chariots but time has ravaged the wood. Its quite eerie, like they are waiting for a call to come to life and fight once more. There is certainly a air of realness to their still form that you imagine their eyes following you as you examine their parade. It was incredible to see.

Shanghai was big and in your face. Its no wonder that the rest of China has a smog problem from the coal fired generators, because Shanghai is sucking their power supply dry with its indulgent display of neon! Naujing Lu is one of the main shopping areas and it looks like Vegas and feels like Blackpool! Its got lots of tat shops, and lots of touts aggressively dragging at you to come look at their counterfeit wears. Its madness. The Bund was quite beautiful with all of its colonial buildings from the English and French occupation. It had a very European feel to it until you turned around and looked across the river to the new sector of Shanghai, with yet more skyscrapers and neon! There is a also a traditional market called Yuyuan where tourists can haggle for a bargain or two. It was good to get amongst the thick of it and barter for a couple of Chinese scrolls!

We climbed a Holy Mountain called Tai Shan so we could seal our commitment to each other with a lock at the top (a Chinese tradition). We worked hard for our love climbing 6600 stairs over 4.6km. The stairs were often steep and we needed regular put stops to avoid collapsing. It so worth it though. The views were extraordinary and we had a little private lock moment when we shackled ourselves together for life and beyond.

We went also went to a Hanging monastery precariously balanced on bowing stilts on the edge of a cliff, a set of caves with thousands of carved buddhi statues in from 3cm to 19m tall, and a little town called Pingyuo, which is the best preserved example of an imperial city in China.

China helped our beer cause massive!! Large beers were only 30p and a bottle of the local spirit (125ml) was also about 30p! Result.

So my friends, as you can see China is worth it and its got lots of wonderful experiences to be had, but you need to step outside of your comfort zone and go with the Chinese flow.

Gallery: China

andyandsam — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 03:02:00 GMT

More piccies to come

Gallery: Australia

andyandsam — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 02:33:00 GMT

Gallery: New Zealand

andyandsam — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 01:20:00 GMT

17th JUNE - 21ST JUNE

andyandsam — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:46:00 GMT

For those of you that don't know, Mo is a very good friend of mine from the UK, whom emigrated to Perth in January of this year. When we said oue teary goodbyes, we banked on it being a very long time before we could hook up again for a few vinos and a gossip. Needless to say, Andy and I worked some magic and gave Mo a big surprise when we told her were could make it. Our first night together was no surprise, lots of chat and lots of alcohol. Infact, we never stopped talking right up to the point Mark and Mo kindly dropped us off at the airport. Mo and I soon realised that we could have spent many more days together and still find things to talk about - a great foundation for a friendship and why I am so very fond of her.

Our first night left Mo wondering who this maniac was that had taken over her living room and turned it into a makeshift disco! As I am occasionally known to do, I cranked the music, dimmed the lights and got the party moving. Mo danced once with me, but my endless spinning her around swiftly spun her enthusiasm off the "dancefloor" and out onto the patio! So, whilst I danced away on my own for the rest of the night, Mo returned to a more civilised drunken chat with Andy!

We spent our first day up at an animal park called Caversham Wildlife Park. This was a fabulous day out, I got to feed and stroke Roos up close, hold and stroke this gorgeous wombat, get up close and stroke the very shy but very cute koala bear, and meet some other characters like Tommy the donkey, a bunch of "babe" lookalikeys and a lot of really friendly "ba ram you's" and goats. We had a wonderful time. Mo was a trooper, she suffered with an horrendous headache whilst putting up with Andy and I running around like kids.

On our second day, we went up to Kings Park, a botanical garden right in the centre of Perth. It was really mellowing to just cruise around, taking in the beautiful flora and fauna, as well as the pretty water features and the awesome view afforded us of Perth city. Mo took us down into the city where we had lunch and said our farewells to Andy. Andy went off to meet his mate Des from SA. Spending the night together (well not literally of course, well not that Andy cares to admit, I wasn't there!) gave them a good chance to catch up with a familiar face and talk shit. Mo and I got carried away chatting and narrowly missed having the car locked up in Perth for the night!!

Mo had some excellent news whilst we were there, a new job! So, to say our congrats, we took her out to lunch on our last day, down in Freemantle. What a gorgeous town, a really strong bohemian feel to it, kinda like lunching in Notting Hill.

Before taking us to the airport, Mark and Mo took us down to their local beach to see the sun set over a few beers. We just got it as the sun fell. Perth is afforded the most gorgeous sunsets - the sky is on fire with a myriad of colours. It was really wonderful and gave Andy and I a good snapshot of the life Mark and Mo wil have in Oz.

It was with regret that I had to say farewell to Mo. Neither of us know when our paths will cross again. We have the internet and phone, but you cant beat the old one on one.

Funnily enough, this was our shortest trip but the one with the most variety of beer tasting! Well done guys, you have helped with the beer tour fantastically. Andy can hardly close his journal for all the labels!!

Mark - thanks for making us feel so welcome and cooking up some killer meals.

Mo - you keep strong and smile everyday for me. Fate will have our paths cross again without a doubt.

4th JUNE - 17TH JUNE: NEW ZEALAND

andyandsam — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:31:00 GMT

Kia Ora!!! This means welcome, so read on. We left the States on the 2nd June and arrived in New Zealand on the 4th June. I am so pleased that my birhday wasn't on the 3rd June because the dateline meant we lost a full day and the 3rd did not exist - very strange!

We decided to do this leg of our trip in a Campervan to experience freedom of the open road, stop where ever we wanted and let our imagination take the lead. This all seemed to be working really well, when we had our first stop, deciding to pull in and camp beside a lake so blue, it was as if it had a direct feed from the ancient ice of a glacier. We cracked a beer and watched the sun go down behind the snow capped Mount Cooke and considered ourselves very lucky to have this opportunity to travel. Then as the night drew in, the sky lit up so bright that it seemed Europe needed to stop using economy bulbs and upgrade to the same wattage our friends in NZ! Even the milky way looked so brilliant that it looked like a spectacular lunar highway - now there would be a road trip! Then the cold set in, and our free-spirited start to the trip plunged into the icy depths of despair!! Our van was pretty old and drafty, so you could feel the wind howling around the inside of the cab! We needed to leave our clothes on, add more layers and our winter woolies, then the duvet, then my Peruvian throw and still we were frozen to the bone! We huddled together like two tramps in a door way hoping for the morning when we could get on our way, get the engine running and thaw out in the front cab!! Needless to say, we were a little more than anxious about our second night, particularly given we were heading South and the temperature was dropping further. So, when we couldn't find anywhere to pull over the second night and had to stay in a trailer park, we were secretly pleased. We could pull out the electric heater, look up to the power supply and have a cosy night's sleep - it was great! We were a bit disappointed with ourselves though, not quite freedom of the road when you are staying in what feels like a glorified cark park, but sometimes the weather prevails and you just have to give in to being a pussy!! We even improvised with a makeshift toilet in the van - remember how the Victorians did it? Well, we did the same, we had our very own pee potty - a lovely bright red bucket! May sound like we had gone a bit native but man, when its blowing a hoolly and the rain is lashing against the van, you really don't want to leave the warmth just to wet your petal! Don't worry guys, we drew the line at pooing, that was saved for the public toliets only!

The South Island is just so beautiful. We started at Christchurch, picking up the Ezy van, then made our way towards Te Anua to visit Milford Sound. The landscape is just incredible, the grass looks as if its been given artificial colouring because its just so so vibrantly green, and the mountainous landscape that surrounds you, leaves you lost for words.

Milford Sound is just one of the South Island's fjords and its beautiful. To approach, you drive through a vastopen vally towards the mountains, it feels as if you are going to hit a dead end because the road ahead is not obvious. Then you start to ascend, and find yourself surrounded by granite mountain faces covered in hundreds of waterfalls almost like blood through veins. You really felt like you were looking at a living breathing thing. We then drove through the mountain in a man made tunnel and emerged the other side where we needed to descend in to the valley below. This was truly magical, and we were lost for words as we dropped into the mist below unable to see what was ahead. We took ship and headed out to see the Sound. We were not disappointed. The same veins of water were descending down the green clad cliffs and raging waterfalls dominated some of the cliffs entirely. The boat got real close so we could feel the power and be humbled by this awesome force of nature.

From Milford, we made our way to Queenstown and then onto the Faust Pass. This took our little van through some challenging terrain , very rugged steep roads with tight turns. Andy made sure we got the most out of our baby and we just leaned in the appropriate direction to avoid tumbling, to go faster or to slow down!! We emerged on the West on the South Island and took the coastal road through some extraordinary rainforest like surroundings. It was pouring with rain but we loved it because it made the greens seem so much more alive and more vivid. We passed via a couple of glaciers, wich were awesome, even crossing the "no go" wire so we could get a closer look. You can imagine that we swiftly got back over the wire when we heard a piece of the glacier crack and fall into the river!

Our plan was to take one of the passes back over the mountains to Christchurch but this was swiftly blighted when we found fresh snow had sumped and made the pass "impassable". We did consider still doing it for a while, but then remembered the rugby team who eat other when their plane had crashed in the Andes (that said Andy's got a few rump steaks in his butt I wouldn't mind digging in to! So we had to take a detour and go all the way around the island - adding about 400km onto an already long drving day. Andy was a trooper bless, and I brought up the rear with red bulls and party tricks!

We met up with Darren and Donna when we hit Auckland. What a great couple and looked after us like kings. Donna so knew my needs, setting me up with a large glass of vino and a very hot bath. Wow! We had lots of laughs and were sorry to say goodbye, but we did alas after flattening their beer and wine stocks, and teaching Daz how to make his red beast (aka 4 wheel drive) go faster! If your reading guys, thanks a million and see you soon.

The North Island was also beautiful but for its rugged coastline rather than its mountains and fjords. We took a great tour around the Bay of Islands and had the pleasure of dolphins swimming alongside the boat and jumping around in front of us. It was wonderful to see them so free spirited rather than performing tricks in a animal park.

One of the highlights of the North Island was a speedboat trip we did. Man, this was cool!! We boarded for a 35 minute journey of rip roaring fun over river rapids. We did 360 degree turns, bounched alot and had near misses with some large boulders - a speciality of the trip!! It was so much fun and we got the photo CD for free which was fab!!

New Zealand comes highly recommended, its gorgeous with so much to see and do. Would love to come back in the summer when I reckon it looks so different. The people are friendly and the beers are great. Would love the opportunity to go back if we get chance.

Gallery: USA

andyandsam — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:58:00 GMT

BIG and BIGGER

15th May - 2nd June: USA

andyandsam — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:37:00 GMT

We left Peru on a 4.20am flight and landed in Toronto around 1pm before needing to wait for our 6pm flight to Los Angeles. As you can imagine, we were feeling the strain but managed to keep the engines running with a few of beers – “kel surprise” I hear you say!! So, when we boarded our flight, and sighing relief that our heads would be nestling into to some comfy hotel pillows in just a few hours, the rain outside turned into a raging storm, and we knew that we were going nowhere fast. Our fate was sealed when the baggage handlers ran for cover. Fortunately, we could not see our bags in the piles of luggage dumped on the ground next to the plane, but the girl next to us however, could see her suitcase slowly floating away into the sunset! We sat for an hour, then two and then joined the queue of planes waiting to take off. Needless to say, being 12^th in line it was another hour before we were airborne! Whilst waiting in line, the aircraft cabin filled with a really thick mist, almost like a fog! A voice in this fog told us not to panic, and that it was a perfectly normal (something to do with the air con and that it happens before boarding and after the aircraft has been sitting for a while)! We laughed, as did most other people around us because this perfectly nice message seemed contradictory to the coughing and the frowns of the cabin crew! Fortunately, the mist did clear before we took off so all was good and we started our adventure in LA at around 11pm.

We picked our car up the following morning at LAX. We had gone for the cheapest car – an economy so were somewhat surprised when we walked away with a PT Cruiser. This was an introduction to the BIG and BIGGER. Only in the states could a PT Cruiser be considered a compact economy car! By the end of our trip however – 4300 miles later – we did feel ‘ickle’ and truly compact in comparison to the huge 4x4, which the Yanks drive.

We hit the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), which takes the scenic route along the Californian coast – really cool. We drove through Malibu, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz etc. At Santa Maria, we headed inland towards the Sequoia National Forest. We decided to take the PT Cruiser off road here and try out some of the less beaten tracks to find ourselves some big old red woods. Bad move! We drove around for hours over some mega dodgy terrain and didn’t see much other than a big meadow aptly named “ Big Meadow!”. We passed a 4x4 and the guy was kind enough not to laugh at us in our ickle car just politely told us that he had struggled with some of the road up ahead and that we might want to consider turning around! So we took the advice and headed back to the main road…and those elusive red woods, well we found shit loads of the f*ckers on the side of the road out of the park! So we learnt a hard lesson – it doesn’t always pay to leave the beaten path of the tourist.

The red woods were fabulous and it truly looked like they had been plucked from the land of the giants and dumped here on Earth, either that or they were on some seriously good steroids! We saw some wonderful examples both at Sequoia National Park and when we went to Yosemite National Park. To put their enormous trunks into perspective, we saw examples where tunnels had been made so that stage coaches (and later cars) could drive through the tree! An average example would need at least 5 people with arms outstretched to circle the trunk. Only the outside of the tree is alive, the inside is dead and very brittle, so it is very easy to climb inside the tree itself. One tree we walked into, the entire middle was hollow so you could look right up through the tree to day light. It was aptly named the “telescope”. Yosemite was beautiful for many reasons, it had the red woods but it also had the most incredible waterfalls and monolithic mountains in a valley carved by glacial erosion over millions of years. We stood at Glacier Point to get a good view of the valley and our breaths were taken away. The stone almost radiated blue, so this against the green lushness of the forests and the white water of the falls was just incredible. A key sight here was “El Capitan”, which is said to be the largest single monolith in the world standing at 3593 feet. Another sight dominating the valley was “Half Dome”, a mountain of granite 87 million years old and standing at 8842 feet. We took a drive down into Yosemite village and managed to get an up close view of Yosemite Falls as the light was fading and the crowds had disappeared. Such a beautiful place and very much deserved of its title as the “Incomparable Valley”.

When we left Yosemite, it was getting very late so we stopped off at a little town. Alas there were no rooms at any of the Inns because of the world famous annual chocolate festival. Oh yea, everyone has heard of that right? There must be some mighty fine chocolate going down at this gig for the whole town to be booked up! So, given we wanted to head to San Francisco in the morning anyway, we got Andy amped up on red bulls, got in the car with a “f*ck yea” attitude and drove the 200 miles to San Fran. We arrived at around 1.30am but were cool thinking how difficult can it be to get a room in a kicking town like San Fran? Really f*cking difficult when there hosting the National Marathon that weekend and you’ve rocked up on the Friday night!! Think of the lyrics “we drove all night…” and you would be spot on. The only room available was in a dodgy part of town where it looked like there was gonna be a showdown between two rival gangs when we got there! When one guy got out of a van left the engine running and had his arm inside his shirt like he was carrying a gun, we took this as our cue to get outta dodge!! So, what did we do? Well at 6.30am in the morning, having lost some of our “f*ck yea” attitude (strangely), we just pulled up at the Golden Gate bridge got out and took some photos as the sun rose over San Francisco! We then proceeded to climb back in the car and get a couple of hours sleep before driving into town to see the sights! San Fran is a beautiful city, its got a really chilled feel to the place. It kinda felt like Notting Hill in London, a really hip and happening place with lots of places to eat drink and be mellow. We had fun just cruising around and going to see Pier 39, where all the seals hang out, serenading tourists with their shouting and squealing. The Golden Gate Bridge was really cool also, it’s an incredible engineering feat. It was never thought possible to build because of the 60mph winds that hit the Bay but it was, over 4 years at a cost of $35million completed in 1937. It can actually sway upto 27 feet in winds of 100mph, which is pretty bloody scary. Yet it stands proud and safe so all good. We wanted to spend longer in San Fran but with no accommodation options, we had to leave that night, which was a real shame.

We travelled onto Lake Tahoe and had a scenic drive around the shoreline. It’s a beautiful setting, with the snow capped mountains, pine forests and the crystal clear waters. We stopped in Reno that night, which was a little bit naff. To sum up the calibre of the place, Andy stepped out of the car to be greeted by a used tampon! Reno was our first taste of Nevada, the gambling State. It was quite an eye opener, gambling is a institution here. In the petrol stations, there are machines even in the pizza take away, there were machines in the counter just in case you fancy a quick fix!

We hit the road for Salt Lake City and pulled into a little town called Winnemucca to see the “world famous” Cowboy Museum. This town was also famous for being the town where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid robbed their last bank. Well, the museum was more a small display of saddles and photies housed in the tourist information centre, which also housed a collection of stuffed animals for your perusal. We should have guessed this was a one horse town when tumbleweeds regularly wafted across our path!

We drove across the salt flats before reaching Salt Lake. They were really cool, just a layer of salt covered land stretching for miles in all directions across incredibly flat land. Luckily, as we drove sunset hit and we were afforded this wonderful pink glow across the flats – really beautiful.

As time was short, we didn’t spend much time in Salt Lake City, rather pressed onto Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone was just incredible. It was really weird to explore the very fragile crust of what is essentially a super volcano. You can really sense the power of this place with the plethora of vents spitting steam, the copious amounts of hot mud pools and the geysers, including the famous “Old Faithful”, which we were lucky enough to see blow. There were number pools of water that were steaming hot, and the colour – wow – so clear and perfect blue. Apparently, Yellowstone could be ripe for blowing and if it does, it would rip the States a new arse hole and have a significant and devastating impact upon the climate around the world. As such, activity at the Park is monitored very closely for change.

Moving on from Yellowstone, we made our way down to view the Grand Staircase National Park and Bryce Canyon in South Western Utah. Wow! These were just incredible. The Grand Staircase is where plateaus and multi-hued cliffs run for distances that really defy human perspective. It was the last place in continental United States to be mapped. Then there is Bryce, which is famous for its unusual geological formations. The erosional forces of frost-wedging and the dissolving power of rainwater have shaped the colorful limestone rock into bizarre shapes including slot canyons, windows, fins, and spires called "hoodoos." We did a 4 hour hike just to feel the magic of this place for ourselves.

Our next stop was Zion National Park. The park has high plateaus, a maze of narrow, deep sandstone canyons and striking rock towers and mesas. We spent the whole day exploring by car and foot to experience the enormity of this place. The canyons were massive so really hard to believe that river erosion was the main cause for the big gouges in this once plateau rather than glaciers. Really beautiful place.

Onto Vegas - the town of partying and gambling. Las Vegas is great. Its everything to everyone on a BIG scale. Its in your face and brash but its great fun too. All of the casinos are fab to look around, and the money is the town is very obvious together with the signs of all the money being lost at the tables too. We made the most of the strip hitting by foot and going into each and every casino for a nosey. We also went and checked out the chapels of love where you can do a drive through wedding. We thought about it for a while but then realised it was just too up market for us! I really loved New York New York, it’s a great casino with fab entertainment. We went to see the duelling pianos in the evening and were not disappointed. Two guys two pianos taking requests. They were excellent. We really wished we had longer there to party hard and lap up the atmosphere a bit more, but we had to leave the bright lights of Vegas behind to go to Hollywood and the home of the Stars – LA.

We stayed in Hollywood just above Hollywood Bld. Man, this is one of LA’s best kept secrets! Hollywood is shitsville!! Unless you are staying in West Hollywood near or in Beverly Hills, you really are living in a suburb full of bums and slums. We went and did the tourist thing though and took in the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre (where all the fill premieres are shown and the stars have their hand prints in the pavement), which was interesting to see. Its not very often, you can say you have walked past Superman, Wonderwoman, Supergirl and Shrek all in one day!! We took a stroll down Rodeo Drive, which for us was nothing great. Lots of big designer labels, ponsy tourists and chauffeurs. Not really our bag but great I guess if you wanna hang about in hopes of seeing a Star or two – which we didn’t! We also took some time out down at Venice Beach so we could get a looksee at Muscle Beach (which was empty) and do a bit of people watching. Really cool place and the beach was huge. We did end up on a bus back to Hollywood though that dropped us off in a mega dodgy part of town. Infact, we used quite a bit of public transport that left us feeling a little less than safe. Note to prospective tourists – hire a car for LA or join a tour group. The public transportation system is not for the faint hearted or timid!!

We took the chance whilst in LA to visit Disneyland. Wow, was I excited! Andy was so cool about taking me to Disney. I really needed to satisfy the kid in me and he was there to accommodate. No easy task given it was a train smash to get there without a car. We needed to get the airport to get a coach to the park, then when we got back we needed to get back into town, using the questionable public transport system!! All said though, it was wonderful. My face ached so much from smiling and I had a few tears of happiness at the Aladdin stage show and the parade. I am truly addicted to the Disney experience – sucker!!

So, that was the States. We fitted so much in that this update has been much longer than the others but fortunately I am sat with a glass of vino at Daz’s house in NZ with all the time in the world!

The States is a wonderful place to visit. Geologically, it is incredibly diverse and you can do and see so much that we could have done with oodles more time. The people are just so friendly, and I have to give a big thumbs up for the States. Everywhere we went, people were just so nice and really keen to get to know a little bit about us. It did wonders for our beer experience also with samples of 40oz bottles of beer coming in at around a quid! Actually come to think of it, we haven’t had a night yet since we left the UK without alcohol – result!!! We doing great guns on our beer tour of the world!!

Hope you have enjoyed. We are in New Zealand now then onto Australia to visit Mo!! Woohoo!!

8th May - 15th May: PERU

andyandsam — Wed, 6 Jun 2007 21:07:00 GMT

OK guys, I apologise for this being such a late update but I have tried twice to update the log and twice the net has crashed on me so gave up in the States trying, particularly given internet access difficult to find unless you need a wireless connection for laptop or are prepared to pay extortionate fees! So I see in New Zealand at 10.15pm typing my update!

Cuzco is a town full of life. You can always find a party here, but alas Andy and I did not enough time to leave our mark (or our sick!) in this upbeat town. It’s also really beautiful, with many of the streets housing buildings whose foundations were made from stones pillaged from the neighbouring Inca heritage site of Saqsaywaman (aka “sexy woman”) many moons ago. We visited this sexy woman on our first day in Peru. When all other travellers are getting used to the altitude by taking it easy, Andy and I hiked up to the site, stopping regularly to catch our breath in the thin air (Cuzco is approx 3390 metres above sea level). The locals have lungs much bigger than us weak western folk, demonstrated quite clearly when a local chap jogged passed us up the hill on his morning run!! Sexy woman is a temple, which forms the head of a puma with Cuzco forming the body. Its was awesome, a true engineering feat of genius. The monolithic blocks with huge yet so finely cut and fitted into the temple with such precision.

Macchu Picchu was incredible. We took the morning train for about 3 hours or so from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (a small town at the base of the mountain, which houses Macchu Picchu). The journey took us through rolling valleys and great mountains and waterfalls as well as through towns where local folk waved us on with a smile (and a few wares for our perusal!). We spent two days there. You get to the site via mini bus, which takes about 15 minutes up a steep zig zag road. The first day, we were afforded a magical fog over the site with the second day being glorious sunshine. It was good to see the two personalities of this place – the mysterious and spiritual, and the majestic glow. It’s a very moving place. Not only because of the site, which is an incredible achievement for the Incans, but also because of the setting, which in its own right takes your breath away. There is something here than moves your spirit. We hiked up Wayna Picchu, a peak overlooking Macchu Picchu. Well actually, we did have the hike before deciding to go down a less than walked trail to the Grand Cavern. It was a spectacular reward to see such a lush cavern of trees with the Incan temple of the moon overlooking, but we were seriously doubting we had taking a tourist path and that we might be lost or damaged for ever as we scaled some pretty hairy pathways above steep ravines and down through bushy forest!!

Nazca was quite unique and a real wonder – why and how had the ancients drawn these huge mathematically accurate images in the desert sand, that could only be seen from above? There are lots of theories so feel free to speculate, we did a lot of that when we took flight in our little 4 man cesna plane to see the “lines” (a collective name for all of the drawings).

We went to visit a cemetery in Nazca also, a very weird place and made you feel somewhat closer to the civilisation that once lived here. The mummies were quite well preserved, many with their hair and nails intact! It was eerie, their eyes looked to follow you around for sure!!

Our bus trip to Nazca was an experience! 14 hours on a bus, comfortable but treacherous as the driver threw us around some steep sharp bends on a double decker! We held on to the bus and each other all night! Andy had a little episode in the toilet, which I must tell you about. You are not allowed to poo in the loo, but Andy did not see the sign so let his little brown fellas go! When he did read the sign, he felt like he needed to liberate his fallen soldiers from the bog, rather than have them block the lav for everyone else on the bus (how considerate!). So, what did he do when they would not flush? He picked them up one by one using tissue and then threw them out of the window on favourable bends (so the first class passengers wouldn’t have kamikaze poos on their windows!). We laughed and laughed for a very long time when 15 minutes later, Andy emerged from the toilet with luminous green fingers from the cleaning fluid! Only Andy – you gotta love him!!

Peru was awesome, a truly inspiring place. If you want to be touched by a culture and feel an overwhelming need to stay longer, or at the very least return as soon as you can, then Peru is for you. The country is stunning, and the people are incredible. Certainly in Southern Peru, they lead very hard lives, yet have the most fearsome spirit to survive. It puts your own worries in perspective when you see how these people find a way to live in the most meagre of conditions. You are badgered regularly to buy goods or to have a picture with a llama, but the trick is not to get annoyed and remember that these guys need your pennies to feed their families.

Gallery: Peru

andyandsam — Tue, 15 May 2007 02:05:00 GMT

Gallery: Canada

andyandsam — Tue, 15 May 2007 01:22:00 GMT

3rd - 8th May: CANADA

andyandsam — Wed, 9 May 2007 07:40:00 GMT

Our departure was a classic 11th hour rush which is typical of Andy and I. Even though we arrived 4 hours early at the airport, we still needed to hightail across Heathrow when we realised the gate was closing! There we were enjoying a pleasant tipple (as is a mandatory requirement of the British constitution) when we realised, so we needed to make like Forrest Gump! We made it and joined all the other late waifs and strays waiting to board!

I now realise what Air Canada do when they want to control your alcohol intake, they place little people around the plane, cunningly disguised as babies. When the moment is right, they spring into action and adopt a suspected pisshead for the flight. I had mine, a two year old girl, who was good at her job, she keep me distracted for hours!! Air Canada - watching you! Joking aside though, good flight with decent food, ample drinks and lots of leg room. Entertainment was a bit naff but you cant have everything.

I had some worries about hostal living given my liking for nice hotels(and the tiniest snob in me!) but I was infact very pleasantly surprised by All Days House #3. It was clean with free internet and kitchen access, and our room was huge with cable and privat bathroom. I can honestly say I have stayed in worse hotels that cost a lot more than 25 pounds a night.

Toronto is an incredibly cosmopolitan city, the cultural diversity is extraordinary. You can take your pick with the districts in the city from Chinese to Italian to Greek to Indian to Portugese. Wonderful culinary experience. There is even a Gay Village, which Andy and I were living next to. It´s an incredibly liberated area with same sex couples quite happily displaying affection in public. Definitely the place to go if you fancy coming out of the closet, you will be whole-heartedly encouraged! Our trip to the beer store always went through the Village!

Talking of the beer store, our life saver. Gave us chance to experience a selection of the local brews at a reasonable price. Andy has been very dedicated in steaming labels off all of the different bottles we tried as a little momento of our trip!

The Canadians are a wondefully friendly bunch, we were made to feel very welcome. Even the chap who took 45 minutes to give us our bill for two beers did so with a smile and when he gave us our change plus the $20 we had paid with with as well, we thought what wonderful generosity! But, you know us, good karma and all that, we came clean and gave it back to the poor bugger.

We went up the CN Tower which has a viewing deck at a whopping 447m high. Great views of Toronto and across the Lake to Niagara. The folks on the pavements literally looked like ants running around. They also have a viewing deck at 337m which has a glass floor. You can walk across the glass floor and feel as if you are walking in air! The first step was the worst, we both felt like Indiana Jones in the "Last Crusade", we had to take a step of faith! I was ok suprisingly but Andy, my bungee jumping surfer/snowboarder supremo got a little freaked out! He did eventually conquered his fears bless but never really felt comfortable. Strange really given he wants to fling himself out of a plane!

The next day we hired a car and headed to Niagara Falls. Best option given the cheapest bus option was $30 each! What can I say - awesome and then a bit more. There are 3 falls in total: The American Falls (not suprisingly on the American side of the border), the Luna Falls (looks like a brides veil and also on the American side, named after the island from which it falls), and the absolutely fabulous Horseshore Falls on the Canadian side of the border (the famous Falls that everyone knows of). The falls were raging with a fury and apparently still not at their prime because of the snow melt. There were actually huge chunks of glacial ice at the bottom of the American falls and still snow pack on the ground in areas. Unfortunately, this did mean that we were not able to ride "Maid in the Mist", which we were desparate to do so we could experience the falls up cross. Ho hum. At least we managed to stand at a rail right near the drop of Horseshoe Falls and appearance the roar of water at its most powerful. It was truly magical to stare into the mist and just appreciate the raw power of nature.

So what did we thing of Toronto? Its like any big city, there are lots of things to see and do so long as you have to dosh to spend. We found it difficult to do things because of our limited budget. Even having a beer was not a cheap affair averaging $14 a round. We kinda found that we did a lot of walking just taking in the vibe and soaking up Canadian hospitality. It satisfied our need for sights because we got to do the CN Tower and Niagara. However, whilst we managed to sample some good beers from the beer shop, it didn´t help our beer tour much because bar prices were so outrageous.

So, onward to Peru for monumental sights and Peruvian beers!

PHOTIES COMING SOON