The final flight

It is hard to believe that our three months of travel is nearly over. It is quite exciting to think that we have now literally travelled around the world. Of course we haven't actually seen the whole world but we have now circled it once.

As most people know, I am a bit of a computer geek at times so I set out to write this blog mainly as a record of our trip. Of course I also thought it might just put our parents minds at ease (although reading about sand duning, biking dangerous roads and hospital trips might not have helped!) Anyhow, I have really enjoyed receiving lots of emails from friends and family who have been reading about our adventures. Thank you!

To summarise:

We began our trip like this -

But after 87 days, 13 flights, 129 hours on buses, 37 different beds, 10 countries and 4 continents, we are now more travel smart, hopefully a little wiser, a touch fatter and a little scruffier.

Location:Changi Airport, Singapore

Last stop: Singapore

I have flown through Singapore many times but this is the first time I have actually visited. We have been here for the last three nights, staying with friends Jamie, Aunchalee and their four month baby, Porinda. Ed and Jamie worked together in Townsville and so it has been great to catch up after such a long time.

We have also spent a bit of time wondering around Singapore. The city actually reminds me of Brisbane a bit. Both are cities built up around water.
Both quite attractive but modern. Singapore confirms its reputation as being a very clean city. It costs huge amounts of money to own a car here as they try to limit the amount of cars on the road. There is literally no rubbish anywhere and even the public toilets are flawless. Walkling through one of the malls, I actually saw a man wiping down one of the indoor plants, obviously ensuring it was clean too.

Of course whilst here we have also eaten some great food. We had a lovely steamed fish the first night here, fresh from market that day. I couldn't get enough of the vegetables either! I think the first meal I eat when I get home will be a big plate of yummy vegetables. Strange the things you miss.




We caught one of the new A380 planes on our way to Singapore. It was pure luxury. We seriously couldn't tell we were on a plan as it was so quiet and smooth.

Great Britian

It has been quite sometime since I last wrote an entry on the blog. This is mainly because we have been so busy sightseeing, catching up with friends and enjoying the UK. It could also be because I am reaching the point of exhaustion after three months of travel. Traveling is surprisingly tiring. All the constant decision making, planning, booking of hostels and of course packing and un-packing.
Not that I am complaining though I think we are both beginning to look forward to the routine of work and normal living again. I mainly am looking forward to it because I have become so relaxed that my mind is turning to jelly. Of course, I actually need to get myself a new job!

We stayed in London for a week and spent most mornings sleeping in and most afternoons seeing the main sites of London. These included Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace as well as some museums and markets. We made a critical error when trying to see the changing of the guards outside Buckingham Palace on a Saturday. It seems about 2000 other people were also wanting to see this tradition. All I could see was the top of a few bearskin hats and the tops of thousands of tourists. I can see why none of our London friends have bothered to see this.



Elise and I at St. Paul's Cathedral.

The best part of our time in the UK has been catching up with friend we haven't seen for years and seeing where they live. Part of this included a trip to see my school friend Marcia who lives in north west England. This visit was part of our current road trip around England. As there have been some major problems in the Middle East we were unable to go on our Egypt tour. So after much debate and consideration of many destinations around the world, we decided to do a trip to
Edinburgh and then a road trip around England.

We caught the train up to Edinburgh (Ed truly thought we were going on the 'Hogwarts Express' - he has just finished reading the Harry Potter series, all seven books read back to back on this trip). It was freezing in Edinburgh and at times it actually snowed! It was a great time to be there though as there weren't too many crowds. From here we hired a car and drove to York. We saw an amazing castle on our way. I just love that you see huge castles and amazing manors everywhere you go. You can actually live in this castle by renting out one of its private apartments. I was very tempted!






Edinburgh Castle



Just hanging out... at my castle!


Edward the train engineer at a train museum in York.

From York we went to Marcia's and stayed in her lovely cottage that is attached to a farm house. Yes, she lives on a farm. As I had been pointing to every farmhouse on our way through England and saying to Edward things like "oohh, can we live there?" I was super excited to stay at Marcia's and watch the lambs (plus her cooking was as delicious as always).









We are now in Oxford and about to meet another friend then off to Wickham tomorrow to see where Mum and Dad used to live. Sadly, we leave London on
Tuesday and will be home by next weekend. Less than a week left. Who can believe it is nearly April?

London snaps

An adventure in Rio

As Carnvial is about to start, we could only get accomodation in Rio for two nights (plus we decided to spend more time at the beach). However, we managed to maximise our time in Rio by spending one night at a Samba School. The Samba Schools perform during Carnivale, so the week before Carnival they invite people to come and watch their final rehearsals. We really enjoyed the night of dancing and music but were both exhausted by the end.












The following day we decided to go and visit a few of the sights in Rio. Deciding to avoid a tour group and save ourselves some money, we caught the bus system around town. This is not easy when you don't speak Portuguese and don't know where you are going. However, everyone we met that day were so friendly and so helpful. We visited Christa Redeemer which towers on a mountain overlooking Rio. It is equivalent to 13 stories high. We then wanted to visit Sainta Teresa, a small colonial style suburb set on a hillside overlooking the city. Not knowing how to get there we got very lucky when we bought some sweet corn for a snack. The vendor asked us where we were going and then told us the bus number. Some teenage girls waiting (in bizzare carnival party costumes) also got on our bus and walked us to our next stop at the other end. We ended up in a small bus climbing up the hill to Sainta Teresa. We sat in the bus a tad too long and ended up at a favela guarded by military but don't worry parents, the bus driver took us straight back to where we needed to be. Somehow we ended up at a great coffee shop eating dulche de leche cake with what Ed describes as the best coffee in South America. We were then given written desciptions to find our way back home. We jumped on a cable car to get down to town and the driver moved everyone around so we had front row seats and he could then instruct us exactly where to go. Although it doesn't sound like we saw a lot, we met some very kind Brazillians, saw a lot of the city and had a very happy day.






It was great to see Rio in the lead up to Carnival. There were huge block parties being held (parties on the street) just because it was only a week until Carnival. I cannot imagine how crazy it will be in a weeks time.



Next stop: London

Colourful characters

Ed and I have both agreed that our favourite stop along out trip was Trindade, our week long beach stop. This was mainly because of the great hostel, the amazing beaches and the character of the town. On weekends there was quite a nightlife. On our last night there we ate a delicious home cooked meal that George the owner made. After a couple of caprianas (a special Brazillian cocktail) we all headed out to the beach bars. Everyone from the hostel went out and enjoyed the Trindade nightlife. What made the night so fun was meeting some of the characters that we had seen around town all week. I will attempt to describe these people below:

Boxer Shorts Guy
Firstly, the bar is owned by a man who only wears boxer shorts. For the entire week he wore the same shorts - and never anything else. His bar is covered wall to wall with pictures from an anatomy book and with other pictures that I cannot describe here. In fact the bar is more of a beach shack that opens up onto the beach. He plays awesome music and all of it comes from his large vinyl collection.



Powder
Meet Powder who is possibly the coolest person I have ever seen. He danced some of the grooviest moves and was clearly preparing himself for Carnival. He was also quite keen on Ed! Can you guess why his name is powder?


Simon Fantastic!
This man actually introduces himself as Simon Fantastic. Need I say more? Below is Jill, an English girl with Cashew Nut and Simon Fantastic.



Cashew nut
Cashew Nut also introduces himself by this name as he is the man that strolls along the beach during the day trying to convince everyone to buy cashew nuts. Nobody seems to buy them so whilst I think the nuts sound tasty, I do wonder how long they have been around.

Tatto Man
Amazingly this man's face is covered in tattoos. You cannot help but stare at him with intrigue. He was very quiet which added to his mystique.


All photos were taken by Emily, one of the lovely English girls we met.

Acai and more food thoughts

It is probably a good thing that we are leaving South America soon as I need to ween myself of all the sweet treats I have discovered here. In general the food is not all that memorable. Buenos Aires was the highlight in terms of food but most other places we visited had very standard meals of rice, beans, salad and either meat, fish or chicken. Generally you could find pizza in most places too.

However, the South Americans (particularly in Argentina and Brazil) do produce delicous sweets. I have already metioned my love of bon bons and dulce de leche but I have since discovered some new loves. The first is called churros and is like a hot donut filled with warm dulche de leche (caramel). These are not donut shape but like long sticks of goodness. The other noteworthy sweet is called 'acai' which is made from a fruit. The fruit is made into a sorbet and then served with chopped banana, honey and granola. Stange combinations I know, but overall quite tasty. Brazillians can often be seen eating this on a hot afternoon and for a long time I thought they were eating a huge bowl of chocolate pudding until I had the courage to ask someone.

Oh how I will miss these things but Ed tells me there is great food awaiting us in London!

Snaps from Trindade (a hidden little beach in Brazil)

Our days mainly consist of chilling out on the beach. It is an amazingly hard life at the moment!










We managed to leave the beach momentarily yesterday to make a trip to the nearest town, Paraty. Ed bought some new thongs/ jandals/ flipflops at a ridiculously cheap price. I wonder how many pairs I can fit in my bag?


Photos from the colonial town of Paraty:












Photos from our hostel. The hostel is set back from the beach but is surrounded by a rainforest. It sleeps 25 people and as people tend to stay for awhile, you get to know everyone quite well. The owner, George, is really great and organises trips to explore the local area and even cooks us dinner from time to time. Last night we had a delicious curry. It was particularly enjoyable because most of the food in South America is very simple and often quite bland.

Where the forest meets the sea

We have finally arrived to the east coast of Brazil. We are in a small coastal town called Trindade, which is between Sao Paulo and Rio. To get to it, you wind down a hill through thick forest until you reach the sea. There are several beaches in the area, some natural swimming pools, a waterfall and many secluded beaches reached only by boat.

Needless to say we are having a very relaxing time and enjoying soaking up some sun. The water is amazing and such a lovely tempreture. It is easy to stay floating in the water for a long time. I have to admit, it is a hard life when all you have to worry about is, "Which beach shall we go to today?"

Of course we are still worrying about whether Egypt will happen or not, but even that is out of our hands until the tour company make a decision for us.

Somewhere in Brazil

It has been a week and a half since our bus ride to Iguazu Falls and since then we have had several more bus rides and entered into Brazil. The funny thing about travelling in Brazil is when you look at a map you think to yourself, "That place is not too far away, let's go there." Only we always discover that in fact that destination is easily another twenty hour bus ride! Despite this we decided to postpone our beach trip and head into south western Brazil to visit the pantanal and a small town called Bonito. Below is a bit of a summary of the last couple of weeks:

Iguazu Falls
Iguazu Falls is situated on the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The waterfalls are simply unbelievable. The photos don't do this place justice and words cannot really describe it but I don't think many other waterfalls would compare. The area comprises 275 waterfalls. We spent the morning walking below the waterfalls and around the top of the falls with several thousand other people. You get incredibly wet when you go near the bottom of them and it is amazing to see how much water flows down each fall. In the afternoon we went to what is called the 'Devil's Throat' which is further upriver and has three falls all merging. I don't know how the walkway was built along there as it reaches right out to the top of the waterfalls so that you look direrctly down to the bottom of the falls. You cannot see the bottom as there is so much water roaring down and the spray from this makes everyone saturated.

The falls were well worth the visit and the long bus trip. We also had a great time in this town and met some nice people who we ate delicious antipasto with. Yum!


















The Pantanal
After the falls we crossed into Brazil and begun a long journey into the Pantanal. This is a large area of land in the southwest of Brazil that borders closely to Bolivia. We stayed out on a farm in the Pantanal for three mosquito ridden nights. It was exceptionally hot and we developed some fabulous arm muscles from all the mosquito swatting. During the days, guides took us on tours of the land in search of interesting wildlife. We saw some amazing birds, including tucans! We also saw monkeys, armadillo, deer, emu like creatures, otters and a few other native rodents. The highlight was the numberr of cayman (alligator like reptile) that we hung out with. We camped in hammocks within a mosquito netted hut. At the campsite we were able to go piranha fishing whilst of course being only metres away from the cayman.

The trip was rather interesting overall, though I was disappointed to not see any pumas or anacondas. Instead I am covered in lots of little mosquito bites. I was mostly badly hit when going to the toilet. No-one warned me that mosquito repellent on my backside was necessary! I possibly would recommend staying in the air conditioned rooms with indoor bathrooms than attempting the more adventurous camping style that we did.

























Bonito
We are now in a place called Bonito, which is a further five hours south west from the Pantanal. People come here to swim in the crystal clear streams and rivers. Yesterday we spent the day floating down a stream on a property about an hour from town. You pay a small fortune for the tour in which you wear a wet suit and snorkle gear and swim through amazingly clear water looking at hundreds of fish swimming past you. The best way I can think to describe it is like imagining you are a miniature person swimming in your tropical fish tank! There were large schools of amazing coloured fish swimming by, sometimes brushing my arm as they didn't seem bothered by us. Sorry, no photos for this trip!

We have spent today just reading, sleeping, catching up on emails and administration as it is raining here. We are hoping to visit a lagoon tomorrow for more snorkling before our last long bus ride all the way to Sao Paulo. I am looking forward to the coastline of Brazil where we plan on spending a week sitting on a beach! As much as travelling is fantastic, it is very exhausting moving every few days and after seven weeks of this we are both missing our comfortable bed.

Location:Lying in a hammock in Bonito