Singapore

Pictures are; me in chinatown, me outside raffles hotel, self portrait by clarke quay, the buddha tooth museum, katie and I on the waterfront.

Hey everyone

After saying goodbye (tearfully) to Laura and Rich at Melbourne I flew to Singapore airport. I was delayed by a few hours so late arrival drinks with my friend Katie who is studying in singapore were cancelled in favour of sleep!

I stayed at a really nice hotel called the Grand Mercure Roxy hotel for a few days which has a shuttle bus to and fro the airport. I had booked it prior to leaving the UK as one less thing to worry about. It was a lovely hotel, with a fitness room and swimming pool, and very convenient for the airport, but a little bit out of town.

Luckily the local metro and bus system is very easy to navigate and taxis are cheap and very safe. In fact the whole of Singapore is very safe and very very friendly. I have never had so many random people strike up conversations with me. My favourite has been the elderly chinese lady outside the Buddha tooth museum who explained that she loved my 'golden hair and blue eyes' (I dont have either...), that her son in law was also from London (with 'golden hair and blue eyes'), that in her next life she hoped to come back with (guess it) 'golden hair and blue eyes'. As we said our goodbyes she explained that she really missed 'your princess diana'. She was a lovely lady and seemed to really like the British, which is always nice.

On Monday I moved to a hostel which I feel slightly more used to and is in my normal price range (about 8 pound a night). The hostel is called 'footprints hostel' and is in the middle of Little India, so much more close to the centre of town. It is a friendly hostel with great staff and hot showers (a bonus). It is a bit odd being in a 10 bed dorm, but I am getting used to it.

Ok, highlights of singapore (in no particular order).

- Hanging out with Katie.

Katie has been looking after me - lending me guide books, recommending where to go, and taking me out for food and drinks in the evening. It has been cool to see her and to meet more of her MBA course friends (who are all very friendly).

- Rooftop bars and Food

We have been to a couple of roof top bars which are wicked cos of the great views, lovely cocktails and cool breeze in the heat of singapore city. Downside? Drinks are really expensive here!

On the other hand, there is a massive range of really good food here, from all over the world, and they have very clean and safe 'hawker centres' which offer cheap and tasty food. I have eaten thai, turkish, and indian so far at both restaurants and little stalls and enjoyed them all.

- Chinatown and Little India

It is currently the run up to Chinese new year and Chinatown is bustling - full of red chinese lanterns, food, clothes and generally lots and lots of people and stalls. The oddest thing we have seen for sale is 'cod jerky' - lovely! I also enjoyed the buddha tooth museum (a tooth of the buddha guarded by monks in a room of gold) and the chinese heritage centre.

I am staying in Little india and really enjoy the ambience. It is not full of the 'postcard' sights like the colonial district but is a great place to wander round and pretend you are in India. Close by is the Arab quarter which is cool - particularly all the independent shops. I loved going in, but the sizes were really built for smaller frames than me!

- Colonial district

I have spent lots of time here - wandering round the classic buildings (and having a drink in raffles hotel), enjoying the waterfront, seeing the museums and going to the Fort Canning park. Singapore is a green place and fort canning park is bang in the centre of town but feels very quiet. There is also a little museum there called the 'battle box' which was where the decision to surrender Singapore to the Japanese was made by the Uk and allied forces on 15 Feb 1942. It is a great little experience but kinda odd as they try to inject the atmosphere of the time with bomb noises going off in this claustrophopic bunker.

- Shopping, shopping and more shopping,...

There is so much for sale at so many different venues across singapore. I have been tempted many times but have held off buying anything as I have way too much luggage already that still has to go to cambodia and thailand. The only thing I have bought is a maxi dress from a street stall as it will roll up very small, and I needed something to wear to all these rooftop bars! Still, i have enjoyed window shopping! If I came here again, I would bring a spare empty suitcase.

After an all too short sojourn in Singapore, I am meeting Alice in Cambodia tomorrow. I don't know how easy it will be to access the web but I will try to keep in touch.

Love to everyone and see you all soon,

Nina xx

Australia

Pictures are: The Melbourne skyline from Brighton beach, Laura and Rich at London arch (great ocean road), Nina and Laura at the 12 Apostles (it was very windy), girls night out in Mordy, and a scary looking Tasmanian devil.

hey everyone - just Nina posting from now on! I am currently in Singapore and can't believe that I have only 3 weeks left!

After saying good bye to Glenn at Lima airport (very tearfully) I flew for an overnight stop in Buenos aires and then onto Melbourne via Sydney. So a lot of flying over that week but the best flight was the Melbourne to Sydney route where there was a mix up over the vegetarian meal I had ordered meaning I didn't get one. So they organised some other food for me, and gave me a bottle of wine on the house (later donated to Laura and Rich). Result!

Laura met me at Melbourne airport and from then on over the next two weeks it was fun, laughter, sun, beach and hanging out with my lovely little sister and her lovely husband. I had such a good time and REALLY appreciated the home comforts provided - as nice as the hostels were that we stayed at, they can't compete with Laura and Rich's fab home.

It would be a really long post (and probably boring for the readers) if i listed everything I did so here are the highlights..(in no particular order).

- Australian Open

I went on the last Wednesday of the tournament and got to see Federer, Serena Williams and Venus Williams play, who (sadly) lost her match. I was really lucky in that the matches were dramatic - Federer was down one set in his match, as was Serena and their comebacks were pretty dramatic.

- Great Ocean Road

Laura, Rich and I drove down the Great Ocean Road on the weekend and stayed at Apollo Bay. We managed to see the 12 Apostles (although i only counted about 5), London Arch and various beautiful beaches. We swam on the beach at Anglesey on a gorgeous warm day. About the only thing that detracted from my enjoyment was the sight of 5-10 year olds practising their surfing and making it look pretty easy (its not fair!).

- Healesville Sanctuary

So I managed to see..deep breath... wombats, kookaburras, kangaroos, koalas, tasmanian devils, bats, goanna, echidnas, platypus, turtles, emus... Basically all the Australian animals you could imagine are here and some of them are pretty weird looking (particularly the platypus). It is a lovely place with large open spaces for the animals and birds to be in - and it was pretty lucky to survive the bushfires that were raging last year.

- Gold Class cinema

How could going to the cinema be a highlight? Well, me and Laura have been talking about going since our last visit and have never made it. Laura kindly took me this time as a fab birthday pressie (thanks Laura!) and it was awesome. The cinema is basically a massive sitting room with huge reclining armchairs paired up from which you can order drinks and food through the show. We saw 'up in the air' (George clooney film) and had a bottle of sparkling wine and a cheese platter bought to our seats in the middle of the film which was ace. Overall, a very luxurious and relaxing experience - it is very nice to be waited on!

I also went to an outdoor showing of the Godfather at the botanical gardens with Rich on a night when Laura had to work. it was very very warm and comfy lying on the rugs and cushions watching a classic film that I had never seen before (really want to see godfather 2 when i get home!). I think ordinary boring cinema has now been totally spoiled for me!

- Mordialloc: Beach, bikes and bubbles

I spent quite a lot of time cycling to the beach at Mordy and also trying some of the other beaches down the coast (including Brighton beach - much nicer than its UK equivalent...). The weather was pretty hot, so a dip in the cold water was much needed after even a short bike ride. The only thing that marred my enjoyment slightly was the 'joke' that Rich made when I arrived about having seen a stingray in the water (after i enthralled them with my stingray story for the 5th time) at Mordy beach. This made me slightly paranoid, but I never saw one, and I think he made it up!

It was also cool to spend time with friends of Laura and Rich - Amy, Derek, Ellen, Pete, Sarah and Matt - most of whom I had met before on the last visit and at the wedding. The boys tended to stick to beer and the girls to 'bubbles' on a night out -which I thoroughly enjoyed - and I had an ace time hanging out with them in Mordy!

It was very very sad to say goodbye to Laura and Rich (more tears at the airport!) but I am looking forward to seeing them at christmas and returning their generous hospitality - although I cant guarantee the weather in the UK will be as good!

Nina xxx

Ecauador Pictures # 2

Ecuador Photos!

Little explanation needed, these photos show us by the beach or the view of the beach in Canoa. the exception is the day of the bike ride down the Cotopaxi volcano near Quito.

Last post from South America (includes sting-rays, strikes and strife)

Hey everyone
We are in Lima (finally!) at a nice hostel in Miraflores (Albuerge Miraflores house) and Nina is flying off tomorrow. So this is our last post together, but Nina will post some more from her travels in Australia and South east Asia.

In the last post, we were in Canoa just bumming round on the beach. We TRIED surfing, but there was something wrong with the surfboards, the waves or our swimming gear as we were rubbish (to put it bluntly). But we hired a bodyboard and were excellent at that (it requires so much skill). We were also excellent at drinking cocktails, eating food, lying on the beach and generally relaxing after our hectic three months. Our hostel did a great 2 4 1 happy hour as the sun went down on the beach and we thought it was good to participate just to be social... It cost only $5 for a great meal every night looking over the beach - fish, shrimps, chicken etc. And of course, brekky was wonderful - also overlooking the beach. We tested out all the hammocks (which overlooked the beach, of course) and found them to be most satisfactory. Lots of pictures to follow.

But all good things must come to an end, and our fun was curtailed by a nasty stingray in the sea on Sunday morning. It must have decided Nina and her body board weren't welcome in the Pacific Ocean any more as it planted a massive sting in the bottom of her foot. We paste a link to the wiki description of Stingray injuries which is a lovely read!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray#Stingray_injuries

So, Nina comes out the sea - foot bleeding, limping, crying and trying to call to Glenn - who just merrily waves oblivious to the pain Nina is in. A group of beach residents gather round at the gringa who is crying and Glenn finally comes over and tell Nina to liven up (only joking..). Lots of advice is given by the Ecuadorians in Spanish, but the pain is so much we limp back to the hostel. So we try 2 paracetemol to take away the pain after cleaning the wound, but after 45 minutes of crying, sobbing, swearing at the searing pain Glenn relents and accepts it might hurt, so we go to the doctor. The local medical centre was a little metal hut but they were first class. We were straight in (unlike A+E) and it was spotlessly clean. He recognised it was a stingray and and anaesthetised the foot - oh the relief! He then cleansed the wound and took the barbs out which were causing the pain. He applied a dressing, gave Nina some antibiotics and Nina limped off. After that, it didn't take long to get better, but as a conversation topic it has lasted -all to Glenns delight.

After this incident, jumping around in the waves didn't seem so alluring, although it is apparently very rare in Canoa. So after a day or so of lazing around on hammocks we said goodbye and jumped on a bus to Guayaquil in the expectation of reaching Lima after a long bus journey.

Unfortunately it was not to be as a transport strike was announced in Peru, and a state of emergency was issued by the government. The bus took 8 hours over bumpy roads with a psycho driver (all part of the experience) and then after 5 hours at the bus station we took an overnight bus across the border to Peru. The border is described as 'harrowing' in the Footprint travel guide (our bible on this trip) and there are many blogs which describe how people try to rip you off as they 'help' you get across. So we took the recommended route of an international bus (CIFA), where your luggage stays on the bus and you negotiate customs with the help of the conductor. The actual border crossing was OK, except it was 2am, but the overnight bus journey was not fun. There was a loud Jean Claude Van Damme movie being played, lights would suddenly come on frequently and with no explanation and there were lots of stops for what was supposed to be a direct bus. But, we made it to Piura in Peru and could go no further by bus as they were paralysed by the strike. Even as we type no-one can give an explanation as to when it will end and the news has headlines like '1600 tourists trapped in Arequipa', 'disaster' and 'state of emergency'. Normally, we wouldnt mind and would just hang out but we had to get to Lima for flights. So we spent a fun four hours trying to book a flight - after lots of back and forth (cards wouldn't work, conflicting advice etc etc) we got one for Wednesday evening. Obviously everyone else had the same idea and we have just walked past a LAN office (airline) and the queue is snaking round the block. So even though we incurred extra cost we did the right thing as Nina really doesn't want to miss the flight to Australia and Glenn is desperate to get back to London to go back to work (!). We were too tired to appreciate Piura and after a row with a taxi driver, we decided to hang out in the tiny airport for 7 hours. The cafe was air conditioned with sofas, coffee and peace so we actually had a nice afternoon (strange as it sounds), which is tantamount to the fact that Glenn was very tired and 'emotional' and seemed to have lost his patient gene (especially with the coach companies and the minister of transport).

We booked the same hostel that we stayed in 3 months ago when we first arrived in Lima, as we knew they pick you up with no hassle, they have massive beds and hot water (which we needed after 48 hours with no shower...nice). This morning we transferred to the hostel in Miraflores which we had already booked and have spent the afternoon enjoying the city now that we are clean and have had a good nights sleep.

Photos will be uploaded soon so you can all be really envious of the time in Canoa (we didn't take any photos of the bus rides though..).

Thanks everyone for following our South american adventure and Glenn will see you all soon (Nina will see some of you soon, other later...).

Nina and Glenn xxx

Relaxing on the beach and surfing

Hey everyone

Just a quick update from a tiny internet cafe just off the beach.

We are now in Canoa a little beach resort off the pacific coast of Ecuador. It took a while to get here from Quito; an overnight bus ride with reina del camino which should have taken 8 hours but took 6.5 (it was quite scary), a little tuk tuk ride to the bay, a boat ride across the bay at 5.30am and then a taxi ride along a dark coast road. Nothing was open when we arrived so we hung outside the hotel, got some brekky and then got into our rooms at 7am. The weather was actually stormy when we arrived and we spent the day finding our bearings. The hotel we checked into was nice but didn´t really have any atmosphere so we moved down the beach to hostel Bambu. Check out the website and you can see why we love it here.

http://www.hotelbambuecuador.com/

Canoa is tiny (without even an ATM) and we have been spending our days on the beach, trying surfing (very very hard) or on a body board (much much easier). Sunset tends to find us at the hostel for happy hour cocktails watching the sun go down over the sea. We love it here and it feels like a perfect way to end our time in South America.

Becuase it is so relaxing we have decided to stay here for an extra few days and have no fixed plans except we need to get to Lima for our flights at the end of next week.

Love to everyone in the UK

Nina and Glenn xxx

The middle of the world....

Hey everyone

We hope that people in the UK are all OK and aren´t suffering too much from the weather. We have seen the satellite pictures and it looks pretty cold!

We arrived safely in Ecuador and are staying in a nice hostel called Chicago Hostel with a roof terrace and brekky for a $1. Everything feels cheap here - you can get a 3 course meal (albeit basic) for under $2 in local restaurants and we paid $3 for ours at a nice veggie one. The weather is pretty changeable but is generally warm, cool wind, and sunny so much more pleasant than Buenos aires. Quito is much higher than Buenos aires so we both felt a little tired yesterday but are suffering no real ill effects luckily.

Today we went on an organised tour which guided us through the old city, up to a mirador (with a statue of a pregnant Virgin Mary) and up to the ófficial´and unofficial centre of the world museum and monument. It is the first ´touristy´organised tour we have done for a while but it was good value and the tour guide was good. Nina made Glenn take some lame photos with her at the ´centre of the world´monuments, and we will post them up on the next blog.

When we talk about the ´middle of the world´, it is the equator line which goes through Quito and where some French, spanish and Ecuadorian scientists designated the official equator line in the mid 18th century. There is an official monument and also a museum where they demonstrate water going round down the sink one way in the North, another way in the South and straight down on the equator line (correolis effect etc).

Tomorrow we are getting driven up a volcano (Cotopaxi) and then are going to whizz down on mountain bikes. It looks really good fun and not as dangerous as Bolivia! Around Quito is known as the avenue of the volcanoes and we put a link below to the one we are going up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotopaxi

Tomorrow evening we are getting an overnight bus to Canoa, a lovely little beach town, where we might try surfing depending on the weather and conditions. We plan to stay for 3 days before heading on, as we are working our way down the coast to Lima for our flights at the end of this trip. But if we love it, we might stay longer!

We will upload pictures as and when we can but because we are going off the beaten track there may be a delay to transmissions.

We hope the weather clears up in the UK and people are taking care of themselves.

Nina and Glenn xx

Bye Bye Argentina...

Tonight is our last night in Buenos Aires as we fly to Ecuador tomorrow. We celebrated or commiserated by having a bottle of red wine (both) with fish (Nina) and Bife de Lomo (enormous steak, Glenn) and then some good desserts at a local restaurant filled with people and very cheap. This pretty much sums up our time in Buenos aires, lots of good and cheap food, red wine, and good fun.

So highlights from our time in BA in no particular order...

1) Tango night at La Viruta with our Irish friends (Emma and Eric) where the lessons were particularly painful (specifically for Glenn) but the evening session where the locals take to the dance floor was pretty special.

2) Food overall. Mostly with the excellent parrillas (wood fired BBQ grills) but especially for our experience at the experimental, modern restaurant called la vineria de gualtierio in San Telmo. The chef trained at El Bulli in Barcelona under Ferran Adria and this restaurant has the same concept.. but at south american not European prices. (Think Heston Blumenthal, liquid nitrogen dishes but totally delish). We did a 14 course tasting menu which included many different wines, so it was like a fantastic wine tour alongside top food.

http://www.lavineriadegualteriobolivar.com/menu.html

3) Boca Juniors stadium. We missed the football because of the xmas break (oh dear, said Nina) but we took a walk to the Barrio to the football stadium and soaked up the atmosphere. We particularly liked the third tier , 45 degree terracing.

4) Relaxing at the Hippodrome (race course) and betting on a horse race solely due to the name of the horse which was called Miss Dolly Dolly. Unfortunately it came 6th out of 9...

5) Night life was fantastic and one our fave memories was spending 5 or 6 hours in a club watching (and dancing to) videos of Oasis, beatles and stereophonics to name a few and getting back to the hostel in time for the free brekky at 8pm on Sunday morning. Sober of course...

6) Dakar rally on 1 Jan. For those of you who are blissfully clueless about this event it is a car and motorbike rally across different countries and we saw the Chile Argentina stage. So lots of cars and motorbikes through central Buenos aires with c 50K people watching and cheering. Unusual way to spend New years day!

7) Day trip to Colonia del sacramento in Uruguay on a slow boat across the rio del plata (think day trip across the channel to calais). Very relaxed and pretty place (UNESCO listed) and a nice break from the big city.

8) Wandering around the city enjoying the sights, people, shopping, ambience, gardens and weirdness (e.g. office workers ripping up their diaries and throwing them off the top floor on New years eve) etc. One random thing to do is go to the cemetery in Recoleta which is basically rich Argentinians displaying their relative importance in the manner of Egyptian pyramids, the bigger and more ostentatious the crypt the more important and rich the family was. Slightly odd but not as odd as the tourists who thought it was tasteful to take pictures of the coffins visible through the mesh doors!

Overall a top place and we could have spent a lot more time here, and written a much longer blog about our time here. Plus Argentina are joining the tri nations rugby in 2 years time. (comment by glenn...).

Love to everyone and Happy 2010. Hope the weather in the UK isnt as bad as it says on the BBC website.Hopefully, it will make you all feel better to know that it is really warm here!

Nina and Glenn xx