After a tearful farewell to friends and family, Damion and Emily have set 
off on their around the world adventure. I'll be keeping the travel diary 
updated with the news and gossip they email back from the other side of nowhere.

Here are the messages that I have received so far.

Crispin.
			 

 
Dear all,

Just a note to let you know that we arrived safely.

The flight was long but someone at the frankfurt check in desk must of liked us
as they upgraded our seats for free to business class. Nice comfortable Airline,
buckets of leg room, a menu to choose meals from and of course free booze.
Excellent start! 

When we arrived at Rio airport we got harassed by all the taxi touts but managed
to get through alive to a descent Radio Taxi. The airport is in the north and to
get to Copacabana we had to drive by all the favelas (tin hut houses) which was
a bit shocking to see, Emily and I just looked at each other hoping things were
gonna look better as we went on.

We got to the hotel and was impressed by the 4 star service in which we were
promised and they gave us a free room to sleep and shower in until check in time
at 13:00hrs. Today has been cloudy and we have had some rain (hence being in the
hotels internet room already) but we had a chance to soak in the dramatic
landscapes around copacabana and the view of sugar loaf mountain.
Tonight I think we'll have a meal on the beachfront and hit a couple of bars.

We also sat down and planned an itinerary for the week ahead, and should go as
follows:

Wednesday: Tour of Sugar Loaf and the City
Thursday: To christ the redeemer statue and surrounding areas and the famous Rio
football stadium.
Friday: Centro and Santa Teresa (old town - trams, markets etc..)
Saturday: meeting up with Humberto (hopefully)
Sunday: don't know yet probably with Humberto and wife again..
Monday: 2 night stay at iguassu falls Brazil and Argentina

That's all for now anyway, i'll keep you all posted how it goes.

Adios Amigos (don't know what it is in portugese yet.

Damion
			 

 
Dear All

We ventured out yesterday to central Rio as it was still too cloudy to relax on the 
beach. Central was nice and also fairly safe however we ventured further to look at the 
trams and got a bit lost so had to get a map out to find the nearest metro. It's 
amazing how a map can be such a magnet for people trying to assist you to where you 
want to go and asking for money at the same time, it all got a bit scary so we got 
out of there pronto! The Metro is very clean, efficient and safe which is always good! 
We walked so many miles yesterday and yet on the map seemed like two blocks, the city 
is absolutely huge. Today we actually saw how huge as we went to the top of sugar loaf 
(396 metres) and to the statue of christ the redeemer (even higher). A view that will
stick in my mind forever, astonishing!

We also visited the Maracana Stadium and recognised a Brazillian player who was sitting 
in front of us on the plane from Frankfurt to Rio. Bizarre, we wondered why people kept 
asking for his autograph, we didn't have a clue who he was! We also went to Rio's 
cathedral, very unlike Canterbury's. An ugly Cone shaped concrete building but all 
the same was nice inside. Our tour guide was cool too, he took us all to a 
restaurant where you pay for your plate of food by weighing it. $R1.76 per 
100grams of food (that is about 43p). It's amazing how much steak weighs! 
Our guide also was from Manaus our next stop so he wrote down the best hotels. 
Anyway that is all for now. The weather here now is hot and sunny and is forecast 
to stay that way until we leave so might actually get a day on copacabana or ipanema 
beach tomorrow.

Hope you are all well and hope the sun is shining for you to in England!

All the best 
Damion
			 

 
I'm in sweaty Manaus.

We left Rio as you know to go to Foz do Igua&231;u (have a look at a map it is 
in South Brazil bordering with Argentina and Paraguay) touching down at 
Curitiba for more passengers. We got off the plane and went straight to the 
falls to have a 1km walk down a twisting path with loads of viewing 
platforms of the falls. Excellent photo material! Saw some weird friendly 
Racoon animals called Quati and my first big spider too. The falls were 
enormous and stretch along the Argentinian border for miles, very 
impressive.
We then head off down the road into the Atlantic forest to do a jeep safari 
tour and white water powerboat ride through the waterfalls etc. It was 
excellent. Got absolutely drenched but was really nice and romantic as it 
was just the two of us in the boat. We took the last one just a dusk was 
setting in.

That evening we got pretty drunk at a nearby pub which had a live portuguese 
band playing. They weren't really our cup of tea but nonetheless 
entertaining. No measures here so Cuba libres go down a treat at 1 pound a 
time! Things are so cheap here!

The following morning we got up a checked out downtown in Foz do Igua&231;u. Not 
really much to see apart from women sitting in the streets podding peas and 
many shops doubling up every 30 yards consisting of drug stores, camera film 
shops, tat gift shops, clothes and shoe shops. It was also so much colder 
here too. I was wearing three layers! The temperature was about 13c as 
opposed to 30c in Rio. We then headed off to a bird park which was actually 
a lot better than expected. Many big avaries with parrots, toucans and many 
weird and some prehistoric looking birds. We then had to fly back to Rio 
this time landing at Londrina, Sao Paulo and finally getting to Rio about 5 
hours later. We checked into the airports grotty travel lodge at an extreme 
R$200 per night (about 50 quid) as we had an early flight to Manaus, 
Amazonas already scheduled on our Trailfinders Star Alliance ticket. The 
flight was longer than expected as in Manaus we go back in time one hour 
from Rio making us now 5 hours behind you. This made it a 5 hour flight 
also, touching down this time in Brasilia. Manaus airport was pretty 
civilised and the people seem very friendly here, we feel much safer than in 
Rio. The taxi man took us to a good colonial looking building that was built 
by the french in the rubber boom in the early 1900's. The room is basic but 
has Air con and minibar...essential as the temperature here is around 35c 
and 90-100% humidity. It's like sitting in a sauna constantly but I'm 
adjusting well. Once checked in we strolled down through the centre of the 
city and toward the docks where the old looking style riverboats load up 
their produce and exports bound for Belem. Lots of touts trying to get us on 
a riverboat but we declined for now. Just opposite the docks is the 
distribution markets and inside is huge. Masses of produce such as fruit, 
veg, spices and freshwater fish. A massive indoor market, never seen or 
smelt anything like it, I love this place. We then strolled back toward the 
hotel and spotted the famous Teatro Amazonas (to us the opera house). I had 
to go with camera in hand, I've read so much about this place and couldn't 
quite believe I was actually here in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest in 
front of this French built amazing building. We looked around and inside was 
closed but there was a show in the evening the Amazonas Filaharmonic 
orchestra so we came back in the eveing to watch and check out the 
immaculate art work and architecture inside the house. The acoustics were 
truly something too. I only wish you could have been here to see and hear it 
with me.

This morning we got up and met up with Green planet tours rep recommended in 
our Rough guide and looked at some of the options on trips into the jungle. 
We haven't much time here as we have to get a riverboat to Tabatinga which 
is a 6 day cruise so we looked at only a daytime visit. The Rep was good and 
went to the floating dock (built by the British) to check out when boats 
leave for Tabatinga. Unfortunately it was bad news the next boat doesn't 
leave until a week Monday, which, puts our itinerary right up the spout to 
be on target for Sydney at Xmas. The tour guide said we were mad doing this 
leg of our journey by riverboat, he said you will get ill the food is awful 
and the boats are always overloaded. And can you imagine what the toilets 
look like after 200 people have used it over six days? So we weighed up our 
options and booked a flight to Tabatinga on Monday allowing us to go on an 
overnight trip starting in the morning. In hindsight this was probably the 
best option the Amazon river is so wide here, 1-2km wide and there really is 
no chance of seeing much in the way of wildlife. We are better off doing the 
riverboat leg on the Amazon from Tabatinga or Leticia in Columbia to Iquitos 
in North Peru. So tomorrow (13th September) we head firstly to the floating 
dock and take a riverboat to the famous meeting of the waters where the Rio 
Solimoes (what later on gets called the Amazon) meets the Rio Negro. The 
waters have different sediment and the meeting of the waters looks like a 
settling guiness, one side dark nearly black the other brown. This is about 
10km from here we then head off another 3hours/65km by boat to a small 
tributary with a floating lodge wher we shall have lunch and head off in 
small canoes to explorer the mighty rainforest and check out the huge water 
lillies etc. The schedule looks then to do some fishing (more piranhas, this 
time hopefully I will catch a black one, these are much bigger...or so they 
say anyway ;-) then evening meal followed by caiman spotting at night. 
Similar to what we did on our holiday in Venezuela on the Orinoco River. The 
next day consists of a 3 hour hike through the rainforest where the guide 
tells us about the medicinal values of the rainforest trees and other 
interest things about the fauna and wildlife. Can't wait sounds like a good 
experience! We then a scheduled to fly to Tabatinga on Monday at 7.30am 
where we will go back a further hour from you making us 6 hours behind.

Damion.
			 

Manaus By Boat

Manaus Amazon Village

orry about the storms, 
they never last long in the tropics.  It has stormed here today and earlier I 
got a little sunburnt. It will turn out fine.

Wednesday morning at 4.30am we are getting our boat to Iquitos and there we shall 
do more jungle tours. The river Solimoes (Amazon) has more wildlife than the Rio 
Negro so it should be even better. Unfortunately, this mean more mossies too. 
This Deet repellent is running out too quickly. I got stung by a giant wasp yesterday 
on my neck but it went down after a couple of hours. You quickly adjust to the 
insects flying around you, some of them you do not though as they are the size of 
small birds.

Damion
		

Hello,
		
I'm off on my own holiday for next couple of weeks, so there won't be any
updates on Damion and Emily's progress around the world until I get back.

I Should be back on English soil about 10th October. So, you'll have to
use your imagination until then!

Crispin.
		

Hi All,

Hope all is well at home and abroad!

Just thought i'd update you all with the latest in our adventure!

We spent 2 days in Lima, and got the bus the Nazca. Nazca is a small town in 
the middle of the desert about 8 hours on the bus south of Lima and Ica. 
Some of you have probably heard of Nazca because of the mysterious Nazca 
Lines etched into the desert. We arrived in the afternoon and we had 
prebooked the hostel in Lima and got transferred from the bus terminal. The 
hostal was right in the centre looking over the Plaza de Armas. The skyline 
backed by sandy mountains. We ventured out soon after arrival looking for a 
good tour company to book a flight over the Nazca lines and a trip to the 
Chaucilla cemetary where the Nazca people were mumified and burried in 
elaborate stone tombs. We found a really good deal and booked for a morning 
flight and to visit the cemetary afterwards. That evening  we went in search 
of the hotel Nasca Lines as a couple we socialised with in Lima suggested we 
check out their Planetarium. We went in and an English speaking man showed 
us the different Lines on the Nazca plains  by projecting them on a dome 
ceiling and explained the history of the Nazca people and theories to the 
lines relevance. He then projected the Southern hemisphere stars and showed 
possible links between the stars and Lines. Very interesting, like being 
back at school again as the man kept saying "pay attention please" Arequipa.

11hrs later we arrive. I've managed to pick up a stinking cold which has 
made me pretty ill since being here, as well as Em getting it too. Be rude 
not to share! So Arequipa, We've been here 4 nights and haven't really done 
too much apart from relax and get over this bad cough! We did however, go to 
a village a couple of days ago to photograph the peruvian terrace farms and 
visit an old colonial mill in Sabandia and visit a monastery in the centre. 
We are recovering from the cold and have delayed our bus to Puno so that we 
can go to the Colca Canyon and Chivay. I'll let you know how it went!

After we have done the trip to Colca we will go to Puno on Sunday and to 
lake titicaca. We were originally going to go to Cusco (machu picchu) 
first and visit Puno after onward to La Paz in Bolivia overland. 
Unfortunately there are problems in Bolivia which makes it impossible for us 
to enter the country via the lake so we have decided to get a flight to La 
Paz direct from Cusco to avoid any problems. We have been told not to travel 
there so will take the advice!

Onward from La Paz to Sao Paulo and Los Angeles....that should be a fun 
journey NOT!

Anyway, that's all I have for you in this installment, hope to here from you 
back sometime? Hint Hint.

Love to all
Damion and Emily
		

Hi All,

Well, we are well into the second month now, and the Peruvian cuisine is really giving 
me grief! We dream about a full english brekkie or Roast dinner!

Here is latest anyway!

Since our last email we have left Arequipa and headed North to Puno on Lake Titicaca. 
We took another bus which took about 5 hours and arrived in the afternoon. We had a 
wander around after checking into our hostel and had something to eat. After the 
altitude started to really kick in (4050m above sea level) and my head felt like it 
was gonna explode! I had a stinking head for about two days, then that's when my stomach 
problems set in! Great!

I was pretty much immobile for the 2 days apart from struggling out for food! Em was 
fine though! The 3rd day we managed to get onto the lake itself to go to the Uros 
floating islands which are made from the reeds on the lake. The people of Uros use the 
reeds to build their islands, houses, boats and they even eat them. We took a reed boat 
to another island that had a small stuffed nimal museum and school on it. It was all 
very nice but we felt it was a bit of a tourist trap. Apparently, according to a Geman 
Anthropologist on our trip the last indian to live on the islands died in 1960 which made 
it all a bit falsified now. Still the scenery was great and I got to see the fish that 
lived in the lake which was cool! The afternoon we walked around the Plaza de Armas and 
got stocked up on food for the 10 hour train journey to Cusco tomorrow.

The train left at 8am, We had a choice between first class at US$80 or US$15 for backpacker 
class. So naturally as backpackers we chose the cheaper option. We expected to be in a 
carriage with chickens and all sorts but it was actually far better than the trains that 
run from Ashford to London. Even had waiter service, expensive food and drinks but 
fortunately we had brought our own supplies. The journey was great, amazing scenery the 
whole way from crossing the side of the lake then on into the huge glaciers of the Andes. 
We stopped at 2 stations on the way. The first was Juliaca a small hell hole of a town and 
secondly for 15 minutes to get off and strech our legs at a station at the highest pass of 
around 4380metres. An excellent point to chew some lovely cocaine sweets! We arrived at 
Cusco smack on 6pm as the sun was setting and eventually found a hostel after going to 3 
that were already fully booked. The room had 5 beds in it which was a bit odd but it was 
our own room. One side of the room had an original stone inca wall which was perfectly 
accurate, unfortunately no hot water though as promised! The hostel was right on the Plaza 
des Armas (main square) so we had a stroll round and a bite to eat and drink that evening.

The next day (Thurs 9th) we changed our hostel to one half the price just the other side 
of the square and spent the day exploring Cusco. We bought a tourist ticket and visited 
the Santa Catalina museum and the massive awesome cathedral. We walked to other Plazas 
and in the evening had a Chinese in the evening in the hope it would be something edible! 
Expensive meal but it was o.k. We have tried the Peruvian dishes such as Alpaca but so far 
haven't been impressed. The Guinea Pig or Cuy looks grim, it comes servd whole and flat 
with head, teeth and claws all still on. It looks like roadkill and according to people 
we have spoken to that have tried it, they say the meat is like dark chicken meat and there 
is hardly any of it. Can't see the point of that!

Friday 10th we headed out of the Cusco valley up into the mountains surrounding to the 
Inca site of Sacsayhuaman and hired a couple of horses and went riding through the mountains 
for about 4 hours visiting other Inca sites such as Qenqo, Tambo Machay and Puka putara. 
We rode through forests and across streams uphill and downhill, and nearly died when the 
horse decided it wanted to have a bit of a run! Excellent fun though! On return to the 
stables we had a walk up to the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the whole town 
of Cusco and then walked down the side of the hill and up over the next to have a proper 
look at the proper site of Sacsayhuaman, a spiritual building looking over the town. The 
site took 10 years to complete and more than 20000 men. According to legend over 3000 men 
lost their lives hoarding the stones across and up the mountians, some of which weigh 300 
tonnes. We had an exhaustive walk back down to the towns Plaza and had a siesta! Goes with 
tradition! The evening we went to the Artisan quarter of San Blas and found a nice looking 
restaurant playing good music. We ordered a normal tasting meal and Em finished with a 
banofee pie...not like you get at home though, yet she polished it all off!

Today, we are having a relaxing day doing what we feel. We have booked the 4 day Inca trail 
which starts tomorrow morning, so are mentally preparing ourselves for a good trek. The 
highest point of the trek is on the 2nd day called the dead womans pass which is over 
4000 metres. The 4th morning (wed) we will trak from 5am to see sunrise over Macchu Pichu 
before all the tourists arrive on the train. Can't wait! We have booked our flight to La 
Paz on the 16th where we will spend one night then get a flight on the 17th from La Paz to 
Sao Paulo, a 4 hour break then onto L.A.

I'll try and let you know if I get a chance how the Inca trail went after anyway!

Hope this reaches you all in good health, and thanks for all your mails. It is good to here
how you are all doing back home, and abroad.

Bye for now
Damion and Emily
xxxx
		

Dear All,

Here is what we have been up to lately!

Well we spent 4 days climbing up and down mountains on the Inca trail which 
was an absolute killer. Everyone knows I drive everywhere! I can't be 
expected to walk for 4 days solid and love it!

Actually it was really cool, the views were absolutely stunning all the way 
and finalised with the beauty of Machu Picchu  itself. The second day of the 
trek was the hardest climbing 2000 metres in one day up to 4132 metres. The 
air is thin and excersise becomes much harder! There were many whinges from 
everyone but, it was all ok onced we had eaten and rested. The second night 
we stayed at the campsite at just under 4000 metres and it got down to -5c 
in the tent. Bit nippy! The third morning started with another vicous climb 
followed by 3000 steps down, Inca steps that is, each one about 2ft deep! My 
knees were pretty useless for clambering around Machu Picchu when we arrived 
on day 4 but the weather was very clear and you could see for miles. I 
recommend it to anyone up for a good rewarding challenge!

We took a 4hr train through the mountains from Machu Picchu to Cusco, of 
which the train went backwards and forwards down sidings to get to the 
bottom of some steep mountains. Weirdness! We first thought we were going 
back on ourselves until we sussed what they were up to! The following 
morning we were up early to try and sort out problems with our booked flight 
to La Paz in Bolivia. The Airport closed due to political problems, protests 
and general unrest and we had an ongoing flight from there to Sau Paulo to 
pick up our connection to L.A. Mmmm tough one. Anyway another $150 later we 
got a flight to Santa Cruz in Bolivia instead. We arrived and shared a cab 
to a real shabby hostel near the centre with a dutch girl and headed off to 
the plaza for something to eat. Em got chatting to a French guy also who 
joined us too. We had a couple of beers a walk round the centre and then 
went back to the lovely hostel for some kip. (Can't complain it was only $4 
a night!) The next day we were warned of protests in the main square but 
curiosity got the better of us and we went for a look. Actually it was very 
placid, just a few Bolivians walking around with white flags! We had a 
coffee and wander round some trips and decided Santa Cruz didn't really have 
much to offer in it's centre and you really need more time to do external 
trips to surrounding areas to enjoy it. We picked up our connection to Sao 
Paulo in the afternoon from Santa Cruz Viru Viru Airport and arrived at 
8.30pm brazillian time. We had a 4 hour wait so we drank lots of coffee and 
had an interesting 3 hour coversation with Franklin, A Bolivian guy who 
lives in Japan. He was giving us japanese lessons and buying us coffee as we 
had no Reais left for Brazil! He was a really nice chap, and interesting 
too!

After a 12 hour flight and lots of waiting around for the U.S. immigration 
to sort themselves out we finally made it out of the airport into a shared 
van into Hollywood. We found an okish hotel for $50 a night and spent the 
day sightseeing Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. The next day we hit 
Universal Studios and had a great day being kids again! We especially liked 
the Back to the Future ride and Shrek 4d movie! Yesterday (Mon 20th Oct) we 
had another stroll around this area frustrated at the fact that we wanted to 
go to other parts of L.A. but the buses and metro are on strike! Joy. So we 
saw the same cheesy sites again and started investigating how much a car 
hire would be. Well I managed to get a mid sized nissan for $40 a day, thats 
the same price as a one way cab to venice beach! What a bargain. Now I just 
have to get my head around driving about theis real busy, hectic city on the 
wrong side of the car and road!

I picked it up fine, Em as navigator we drove all day! We checked out all 
the spots. Mullholland drive, Rodeo drive, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa 
Monica where we stopped and walked the 5 miles to Venice beach and back. We 
later drove back toward hollywood (in rush hour too, not good) and drove 
into the hills to stop to take in the views of L.A. by night. Pretty Good I 
must say...massive too. We had a beer and meal in  a snazzy bowling alley 
just down the street and are gonna head to bed.

Tomorrow, we still have the car so will probably check out downtown and a 
few other spots before heading backto LAX for our evening take off at 8ish 
for Raratonga in the Cook islands, another 12hr joyous flight. Hopefully the 
food on an Air NZ flight will beak the crap we were served on Varig!

Anyway hope this mail reaches you all in good health and will catch up with 
you all again soon I hope!
Mail me back it's good to hear what you are all up to!
		

Hi All,

It seems awhile now since I last wrote maybe not so long ago for yourselves 
so I hope this whole updating does not become too monotonous or irritating 
for you on those cold, dank October days :)

Well, as title would suggest we made it to L.A. and made it is no exaggeration. 
I will begin from where I would have left off.....

We arrived in Cusco, Peru after Damion's ill effects off altitude sickness 
taking its toll in Puno. Cusco is somewhat lower approx 2000 metres, so 
half that of Puno. I immediately fell in love with Cusco, a beautiful 
Inca town based as usual around a central Plaza with Cathedral and other 
amazing architectural buildings, even had a trendy & cosy English 
restaurant selling great Sunday roasts! We allowed ourselves a few 
days around the town including a John Wayne style horse ride around 
some old Inca ruins but well worth it to see Damion elegantly poise 
himself on his horse (very amusing)!!

Then the fun began with the four day Inca trail we booked ourselves 
onto, I won't bore yourselves too stupidly with the ins and outs of 
these four days as no doubt Damion will do so on the website 
(www.thegibbon.co.uk) but to say it was difficult is an understatement.
We were in a group of 11 of us with 10 porters and a guide. The 
porters carried everything from cooking equip. to tents and food, 
we just carried our own personal stuff. The second day was the hardest 
climbing 2,000 metres in one day and I just kept muttering under my 
breath "this is just stupid" because I didn't see how anyone could be
expected to do something so gruelling. I even nearly let it get the 
better of me at one point but Damion spurred me on with motivating 
comments that really helped to snap me out of it. (Despite wanting to 
punch him one!) The third day I think I had eaten something dodgy that 
upset me or maybe even just the fact of getting up at 5am each morning 
to face trekking by 6am was enough to do it for me but I felt totally 
icky on the third day and didn't think I'd physically manage the last 
day but somehow did. The group we were in were really nice a mix of 
Israelis, Germans, Dutch, one Irish (of course), Italian and Spanish 
and we all had a good laugh at the end of each day. The food was good 
really considering the limitations they had up a mountain with no elec. 
or shops about but thinking about it now makes my tummy turn a bit so 
I'll stop there......!

The final day involved a 4am start to make the Lost Inca City (Machu 
Picchu) by sunrise. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy and misty morning 
but when we both stumbled upon the view you can't help but realise it 
was worth the slog to get there. We both stank with not having 
showered for the duration and on the train home I was conscious of 
locals opening the windows!! If I had written this on my immediate 
return I would have been a lot more negative because I ached, I was 
sick and really exhausted and longing for a bath (which we didn't 
have, only a shower) but now a week on I feel quite chuffed with 
myself for doing it because it is tough but a must do.

We had problems with getting to Bolivia after the trail, as the 
capital's airport was closed due to riots etc so we had to fly to 
a smaller city outside of La Paz. Santa Cruz was quite a dump we 
thought but we met a nice French guy and Dutch girl at our depressing 
hostal to spend the evening with before taking our connecting flight 
to Sao Paulo which would then take us onto L.A. We arrived in L.A. 
on Saturday and have not stopped eating...caking out.....going 
large on everything. The novelty of what seems normal food was 
overwhelming but now I am totally grossed out by burgers and all 
that is sweet! We are staying in Hollywood what seems like a timewarp 
or some 80's throwback place if you ask me but we hired a car today 
and did Beverly Hills, Malibu, Venice Beach and Rodeo Drive etc.. all 
very swank. Today I saw a girl sitting on the street with a sign 
saying "please give me money, I need breast implants.." that said 
it all about this place!

Right, enough for now, off to The Cook Islands tomorrow.......
and must email some of you that have sent me great news and 
updates from home.
Hope everyone is well, miss you lots.

Love to all
Emily
xxxx
		

Dear All,

Well L.A. flew by! The second day of having the car I drove all day. I 
thought it would be fun to drive from one end of the city to the other to 
take in all the sights without using a freeway and it took about 4 hours. If 
you thought Ashford is bad for traffic lights, try having them for 50 miles 
every 30 yards! Nevertheless we got to check out a necklace for Ems in a 
shop on Rodeo Drive that was a mere 81000 dollars, and we found a hair 
products shop that Em managed to buy 100 dollars worth of stuff that was of 
course all necessary! We carried on south toward Long Beach but decided the 
journey was taking too long and we should head to Manhattan beach instead as 
the car was due back at the Airport for 6pm. Manhattan was really chilled 
and nice. We stopped in a bakery and ordered 2 small special sandwiches for 
lunch and some halloween special cookies! The sandwiches were so wide i had 
to seperate them to eat them and I struggled to get through them, Em had to 
save hers for later! Soooo nice to eat normal food again though! We checked 
out an aquarium on the pier (of  course) and then drove along the coast 
through El Segundo and Marina Del Rey. We eventually found the airport 
dropoff after me tutting at Em's navigation at several points especially 
being told to do a right when in the left lane of a five lane packed 
freeway! Jooooy!

We got to LAX Airport and were greeted by the friendly Yanks there (Not). We 
sat and had a beer in the Cheers (TV Show) bar and waited for our flight to 
the Cooks. The flight was with Air New Zealand and lasted 8 hours to Tahiti 
then another 2 hours to Rarotonga. We arrived and found some accomodation at 
the airport called Vara's beach huts on Muri beach. We got lucky as they had 
ran out of basic huts so got a luxury self catering apartment for the same 
price. The place is beautiful and comfortable and we managed to sleep pretty 
much all day as soon as we arrived. We got up eventually and went in hunt of 
a supermarket to pick up some foodstuff. We found normal foods and a good 
butchers and got back and cooked ourselves a wholesome pasta dish to set us 
up for the evening. We strolled along the beach to walk off the meal and had 
a paddle in the crystal waters. The view is something amazing, I could only 
describe it as paradise. So peaceful and just stunning. The beach sand is 
white, the sea is warm and calm. You can see the bigger waves hitting the 
reef about 200 metres offshore. I can't wait to find that dive centre! 
Apparently you can dive with Sharks, Rays and Whales...cool! We found a 
lovely little yacht club bar and restaurant and sat and had a beer or two on 
the beach.

The following morning we got up early and hired a twist and go scooter for 3 
days. We had an urge to drive the whole way around the island to check 
everything out so we started off and about 1/6 of the way round it started 
to rain. We stopped and got cover under some trees on the beachfront but it 
didn't want to calm down so we decided to head back to Varas until it 
brightened up. What a laugh that was. As soon as we got on the moped it 
chucked down, harder than I've ever seen rain fall in my life. It hurt when 
it hit us, it was that hard. Cars were stopping because wipers couldn't 
cope, I carried on slowly all the way back, absolutely drenched. My eyes 
were completely bloodshot from keeping them open, it was literally like 
swimming! All we could do was laugh hysterically all the way, along with 
passers by in their roadside shelters. We got changed, dried off and had 
lunch and have just come out again to feel more rain starting so we have 
come into this net cafe and will watch the weather! Hopefully this evening 
will be better along with the days to come.

Hope all is o.k. I will keep you updated, and let you all know how our PADI 
dive training goes.

Speak soon
Love Damion and Emily
xxx
		

Dear all,

The latest update!

Well we arrived safe and sound in good old Auckland and made our way to meet 
Carin who kindly offered us breakfast upon arrival (The girl we met up with 
in the cooks). The first day we spent sleep walking around the streets of the 
city centre getting our bearings and of course visited the city's aquarium! 
Carin let us stay the night at her appt and the following day we headed out 
to the city again and caught a ferry across to Devonport to view the city 
skyline. The afternoon was spent walking around and going up the skytower.

We ended up staying with Carin for 4 nights and she was so cool, she is an 
art director and puts together telvision commercials and lives in her studio 
on an industrial estate. Sounds weird, but it was actually pretty cool. 
Having recently returned from the cooks she had no worked lined up and ended 
up giving us a tour of the North of Auckland and around the Coromandel Peninsula. 
We viewed some beautiful coves and beaches and had a right laugh as they say 
hooning around!

Having left Carins we met up with Kate (from facts) and Auto her new man for 
the backpacker experience of travelling around the whole of New Zealand. The 
first day was spent in Raglan a great surf spot. However weather was a bit on 
the cold side so we opted for a hill trek instead through some beautiful almost 
tropical forest areas. The second day, we headed back to the Coromandel to 
Hahei beach but stopped off at Waitomo where a lot of the guys on the bus did 
caving. We opted for the option of quad biking through some very wet and immense 
terrain. Excellent fun, lots of sideways action and a couple of scary moments! 
Emily enjoyed it too, and when she got too close i made sure I wheel spun mud all 
over her! ha ha! The joy of waterproofs aye! Kate and Auto joined us on it and was 
an all round enjoyable experience. Auto is just the funniest bloke i've ever met 
and I think maybe the craziest too! We eventually got to Hahei and had a walk down 
to cathedral cove in the morning which was nice!

We then had a drive into the wopwops to a farming town called Makatu. We all stayed 
at Uncle Boys house and had the whole cultural Maori thing going on. I learnt how 
to do the Haka (you may have seen the all blacks do it before a game) with the 
other guys and had to live perfom it half naked in front of an audience of 15 
girls. Glad I learnt it though as the next day in Rotorua I got dragged up on 
stage to do it again!

Rotorua (or vegas as they call it here) was the next stop and onto Taupo (the big 
lake town). We stopped iin vegas and did a guided tour around a cultural thermal 
village and saw a couple of geysers and some bubbling mud! Has to be done I guess! 
Then to Taupo where I stupidly signed up on the bus to do a skydive. 8 of us actually 
got the bottle and said what the hell. A 13000ft drop with a 45 second freefall. 
I must be mad. The diving centre was actually really cool and they have a brand 
new really powerful aircraft that gets you up there in only 10-12 minutes and is 
the only plane in new zealand built for just diving out of. I can assure you there 
were a few nervous smiles on the way up and the pilot to calm us down thought he'd 
do some aerobatics and gave us a 2 second weightlessness experience 3 times by sharply 
pulling the craft up and down. By this time my stomach was already behind the plane...
you know the feeling you get on a rollercoaster but 10 times worse. we got to the 
required height and believe me it is a long way down out of the window! Wish i packed 
a nappy! The instructors one by one literally perched us on the edge of the side 
roller door opening and flipped us out. That initial bit is got to be the weirdest 
feeling i've ever had. I can't describe it, but all i know is the first 3 -5 seconds 
is shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttt...
then it's Ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..............
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Absolutely amazing, falling at 130mph toward the earth...
what a rush! I've even got the video to prove it!
Might be tempted into another one at Franz over the glacier as I think Em is working 
up the guts to do one herself with Kate. Obviously afterwards I had to celebrate and 
we all headed out for a very heavy night where Auto introduced me to the ski run. 
A three shot monster that creeps up on you all evening. I must of been p#@sed as I 
shook on a deal with Auto that we'd next go for a tandem short bungee and jump off 
backward....I'm getting the taste for this adrenaline junky stuff but still I'm sure 
it will still scare me senseless.

We are now currently near Tongariro and feels like we are in the lake district. The 
weather is cold, misty and we are staying at a ski resort but no snow anywhere! 
Tonight is the All blacks - S. Africa rugby game so should be another ruiness one! 
The NZ's are crazy on Rugby!

Well to conclude, I'm having a really crap time ...NOT. and I hope it all ends 
really soon.....NOT.
The people on the bus are so entertaining, the locals are really friendly and the 
scenery is amazing...and I won't even mention the adrenaline sports again! I'm still 
smiling.

I hope all is good back home and friends abroad and I look forward to hearing from 
you soon.

Love Damion & Emily...still suffering with the ski run hangover!
		

Dear all,

Here's the latest!

Well the Rugby game between the all blacks and Aus sure put a dampner on all 
the locals for a while but they were soon over it! Good to see the English 
give the French a good thrashing! And hopefully to Aus on Saturday night 
too. We'll be watching that one in Queenstown.

The morning we left the Skotel ski resort the weather was clear and crisp 
and could actually see the impressive volcanco Mt. Ngaurhoe in it's typical 
volcano looking stance! Excellent photos I hope.
We cruised on round many mountainous tight corners and headed toward 
Barrytown. We stopped of on the way where we had the options of jet boating 
or horse riding. What a choice aye!

So the jet boat was this small 6 seater speedboat with a rocket engine 
strapped in the back that when started sounded like a V8 chevy. We jumped in 
the boat and were towed by the oldest tractor in the world to the white 
water river. The tractor reversed us in and we were given a brief safety 
talk and he discussed how much weed he smoked this morning to calm his 
nerves! They have such a sense of humour before high adrenaline activities! 
Anyway at first we cruised slowly and took in the beauty of the Gorge itself 
and of the birds flying around. I'm well impressed with the amount of birds 
of prey you see here...usually seen eating dead possoms on the roadside! We 
turned a few meanders then he cranked her up to 60 knots and threw us around 
the gorge edges turning around tight formations giving only a few inches of 
clearance and throwing the boat into massive 360 + spins at ridicolously 
high speeds in white torrents.... excellent stuff. The first corner threw a 
wave down the neck of my waterproofs and ensured that I'd be sitting in my 
wet undies for the duration! 20 spins later we actually started yawning, I 
wanted more rock slings, even though Em didn't trust the driver, but he was 
fine just had a warped sense of humour! Actually reminded me of a few sunday 
drives with Des! But we won't go there aye mate!

We then headed off to Barrytown. A desolate part of the west coast of the 
sout island with one pub and a hostel attached to it. The owners were pretty 
miserable but the chef could cook a pretty good steak which is all good! The 
sunset was good to see over the sea too. An early start and we left 
Barrytown to head to Franz Josef. A couple of stops on the way for coffees 
and supermarket. Franz Josef is a small town with a few souvenir shops, 
cafes and lots of places selling organised glacier treks, helicopter tours 
and other sports. The weather upon arrival at 4pm was overcast with a few 
blue spots but was forecast to get worse and chuck down with rain the 
following day. So as Kate and Em were all geared up mentally to jump out of 
a plane we all jumped into a one of the staffs car of the hostal and 
"phanged" it down to fox glacier to this tiny remote air strip surrounded by 
mountains and farmland about 30kms away from Franz. The girls got rigged and 
off they went for their 45 sec freefall with views of mt. cook and the fox 
glacier itself. Fortunately they did this, as the weather was too cloudy to 
view anything from the ground so was nice to get the scenic flight above the 
clouds too and the opportunity to take yet more photos. They took off, and 
Auto and I "phanged" it down to the landing strip a few kms down the road to 
catch a few photos of their landing. The area was vast and so silent, You 
could actually heer their shoots open above the cloud before we could see 
them and also here them talking. A relieving sight to see all shoots open 
and to hear them laughing in the air. I kew she was nervous...I mean I was 
only feeling the same way the other day! But she loved it and wanted to 
instantly go again! You have to do it! We returned to the airport to pay and 
collect the planes photos and t-shirts and headed to the pub for a swift one 
and back to franz for a homecooked meal between the 4 of us and over to the 
pub to watch the rugby playoff between NZ and France.

Today we were going to do a walk near or on the franz glacier but the 
weather is really dreary today and raining lots so opted for a day in cafes 
and internet cafes. Luckily we manged to squeeze in a short walk yesterday 
to a viewpoint of the glacier. Impressive sight, and to think it's on the 
move by 2 metres a day.

Next stop Haast. We leave at 3pm and don't really know what lies ahead apart 
from more stupid activites, magnificent views and no doubt more drinking!

Well we are still really having a good time and haven't run out of money 
yet! Better calm down on these sports though for sure because they aren't 
cheap. But in comparison they are a lot cheaper than home and many things 
you can only really do in NZ. Eg. the sky dive was about 80 pounds as 
apposed to paying probably something like 2-300 pounds in the u.k. for 
probably only a 20 second freefall too.
There's my guilt and justification anyway!

Hope everyone is cool! Kia Ora.

Lots of Love from
Damion and Emily
xxx
		

Dear All,

Thought we'd bore you all again!

Well the rugby turned out well! A good day. I managed to throw myself off a 
42 metre bridge (the k bridge for all you NZ bungee fans) tandem with Auto 
and dived off backwards! Very entertaining! Don't think I've laughed so much 
for a long time! I'll try and find a scanner soon to scan in some pics!

Well as you have probably guessed we arrived in Queenstown. The home of 
adrenaline activities. The weather is real sunny and the ''Remarkable'' 
mountains on the backdrop of Queenstown look awesome.
The first day included my bungee jump and basically getting merry in Red 
Rocks bar for the rugby. A tight game and a big session after.

The following morning my head was pretty sore but we managed to drag 
ourselves out for a full kiwi brekkie and to a piercing shop to check out 
this guy Auto said we should find! Innersteel he is, a mad biohazard signed 
piercing place. The guy who owns it has titanium teeth, and enjoys 
suspending himself by meat hooks to entertain audiences! He was very willing 
to show us his photo albums of himself and others on hooks and also of him 
doing a bungee whilst suspended off the bridge with meat hooks in his back 
with a release pin to let him drop. Mad as a bag of badgers! But worth a 
visit for shock value entertainment. After which we went for a drive into 
skippers canyon with a 4wd car with Kate, Auto, Emily and a couple of Auto's 
friends. We drove around sharp corners with big drop offs with views all 
across the valley and Queenstown itself. The rest of the journey was Lord of 
the Rings country and had been used in the films. Stunning would 
underestimate it! Can't wait to bore you all with the photos and some of the 
stories with them. The evening Em and I had a walk around the park by the 
lake and took the ski type finicular to watch sunset over the Remarkables 
(the second mountain range to run true North to South - NZ alps) and saw 
them turn pink! Very nice!

An early start the following day! The bus was to leave at 7am for Te anau 
and onto Milford at 7am and Auto woke us up by shouting up at our window at 
7.05am! oops. Luckily there was only one other passenger at this time as 
everyone stopped off for more time in Queenstown. So we grabbed all our 
stuff and was on the bus within 5 minutes. Felt like having a shout but 
having to take your backpack with you! The journey was long but very 
beautiful. Loads of waterfalls, huge snowcaps and big lakes and streams. We 
arrived at Milford just before 3pm and took a scenic boat through Milford 
Sounds. Spotted a bottlenose dolphin, and some seals too! The boat was very 
tranquil, a bit windy a times but was well worthwhile. We arrived back at Te 
Anau and all had Fush n chups at the campsite and headed down to lake for 
sunset.

We are currently in Invercargill in the south of the south island of New 
Zealand. We took a small trip to Bluff one of the most southern points and 
also a place called McCrackens Rest, another story behind a photo....i'll 
let you guess! The hostel is cool and we are all heading out for cuzza 
tonight. I'm to introduce Auto to the world of curry as he hasn't had one 
yet! It's o.k. though I told him the Phaal is the mild one! Ha.

Anyway a quick update I've got to pick up my watch from the repair shop, 
can't see the time as I filled it with water on the jet boat! Doh.

Bye for now. Hope everyone is cool and is still good to hear from you all. 
Nice to hear what's going on at home and everyone abroad too!

Take care

Damion Emily.

xxx
		

Hello All,

We have just arrived in Australia, Melbourne in fact. We are staying with my 
friend Chris and family.

So far we haven't done much apart from chill out after the mad times in NZ 
but today we managed to escape the mad house and got into the city for a 
look around. It's a very cool city and very cosmopolitan, lots of cool bars, 
eateries and skyscrapers. Tonight and tomorrow unfortunately we are helping 
Chris and Lisa move house, should be fun! Then after the move, at the 
weekend he is going to take us for a trip down the great ocean road to the 
twelve apostles etc.. and also to phillip island.

We are in the process of buying a car, she's a real stunner. A dent in every 
panel, with 3 litre V6 lump in it with a gas tank too for economy! A Ford 
Falcon. Got to get a torque converter fitted on it and a spare wheel is 
needed but other than that it's registered and good to go. Needs a good 
clean too! However, in total it's set us back $700 which is about 300 
pounds... bargain. Just hope it gets us to Cairns, a long drive. At least if 
it all goes pear shaped I won't be too bothered to throw it away at that 
price!

We are here for a couple of weeks and then will cruise up the coast highway 
toward Sydney stopping off at a few small towns and some secluded beaches on 
the way!

Hope all is well at home and you are all getting into the xmas spirit with 
those dark cold evenings!

Take care and will be in touch soon!

Love
Damion and Ems.
xxx
		

Dear all,

I expect by now you are all frantic with the xmas chaos! Well it doesn't 
feel too christmassy here yet at 36 degrees! It has been wickedly hot here. 
So far we have spent two weeks in Melbourne and have ventured all over the 
city and its suburbs. It was a very cosmopolitan city with a nice feeling to 
it. As you know we were buying a car. Well she's got us to Sydney! We left 
Melbourne and drove to Port Campbell on the great ocean road in the opposite 
direction to Sydney to admire the views and basically for the drive. We 
dtopped off in small bay towns on the way and at several viewpoints 
including the famous twelve apostles. We stayed at Port Campbell the night 
and had a nice meal watching the sunset over the cove and southern ocean. We 
left there and headed toward Queenscliff to get a car ferry over to Sorrento 
to skip us having to drive around Phillip bay as we headed toward Phillip 
island for sunset and the penguin parade! It  ended being a bit of a rush to 
get there before the sun went down as we had car problems and stopped in 
Appollo bay whilst the car undergoed tests of which they couldn't find the 
fault! The beast just decides to completely cut out on us from time to time 
but luckily always mangages to restart! I've joined the RACV for peace of 
mind.... wouldn't want to get munsened!

The penguin parade was cool. The Penguins come back from sea at dusk in 
their hoards and travel across the beach to their burrows in the grassland 
and you can walk the boardwalk and follow them home. We stayed in a funky 
YHA hostel and in the morning went to a koala sanctuary and churchill island 
for a nice afternoon stroll in the bush. From here we drove onto Lakes 
Entrance down the coast road toward Sydney. Only a 1000 mile drive to Sydney 
in total! We relaxed on the beach (and fly swatted for an hour, they are 
really persistent here) in Lakes entrance and got an early start for a six 
hour drive to Batemans Bay. A few stop offs on the way and we arrived to 
stay in a caravan the night. We took a drive that evening to a small beach 
village about 10km out to see the kangaroos on the beach. They were grazing 
in peoples front gardens and we got really close before they hopped off but 
saw none body surfing on the beach! We did however see lots of bluebottle 
jellyfish washed up on the beach, which of course i had to investigate 
further with a stick!

The following day we set off and headed toward Wollongong but arrived early 
and decided to carry on the drive a bit closer to Sydney so we could leave 
early to meet Em's Mum and Sister in good time the next day. We had 
difficulty finding accomodation but ended up finding a motel in a place 
called Heathcote about 1.5 hours drive from the city centre. We ate a 
stupidly cheap but huge chinese meal here and admired the tacky shops and 
pub! We awoke early and drove to the city centre, we got a bit lost (as you 
do in strange city centres with freaky one way systems) but eventually found 
our apartment in Darling Harbour ( which we booked in England way before 
leaving). The room wasn't ready and Grace and Rosemary were strolling so we 
did also hoping we may bump into them. They valet parked the beast....which 
i've aptly named Bitch (she loves it really) and strolled around the 
harbour. Beautiful day...roasting hot though, and ventured around Chinatown 
(which is where i'm emailing from now). Eventually got into our luxury 
apartment...and boy is it cool. Excellent view and very very spacious with 
all mod cons, even a dishwasher! Hoorah. Excellent for xmas well worth the 
investment before leaving! Rosemary and Grace arrived pretty tired and we 
spent the rest of the day in catching up and them dosing. The evening we 
went out for a shop and liquor stop and I cooked all a fajita feast which 
went down very well. Mmmm.

Today we met up with Kevin, another one of Em's relatives and  caught a 
ferry to Manly. The weather being a little stormy looking and a lot 
cooler...thank god. Manly was nice, all ferries free too due to strike 
action. We got to sail by the opera house and harbour bridge for the classic 
photos. Tonight we are heading into Darling harbour again for a seafood 
restaurant, which I'm not too keen on as I'm not really a fish lover but 
they do have steak on the menu. It will be like ordering chips in a curry 
house but heh, I'll try it but think i'll hate most of it!

Anyway I'll email you all again soon but have a wicked christmas and New 
Year and thankyou in advance for all your cards etc at Facts, didn't expect 
it, really chuffed. Have fun and enjoy yourselves whatever you all do.

Love from Damion and Emily
xxxxx
		

Hi all,

Hope you have all have recovered by now from the new year partying!

As you probably guessed we had a fantastic time in Sydney. New year was a 
bit of a nightmare, I would say way way too overcrowded, with fights 
breaking out with people being pushed around the quay. We decided it was 
unsafe and headed back to our balcony with the Vodka and bundys rum and of 
course champagne to watch the fireworks in a much more civilised 
environment! Sydneys apes I think must of been let out for the night as this 
was the first we had seen of the Aussie Chav! The last few remaining days in 
Sydney we spent doing more sightseeing of course. New years day we chilled 
and strolled around darling harbour watching jet ski shows etc.

On the 2nd we headed down to the southern head of the main harbour and did a 
3 hour walk around the headlands of which Captain cook sailed. The evening 
we met up with one of Em's friends Emma and went on an evening city lights 
boat cruise, of which i did a whole film just clicking away at the 
magnificent sunset over the skyscrapers, the lights of the city at nightfall 
and the opera house and harbour bridge with it's new 2004 lights 
illuminating it in different colours.

The 3rd, the girls headed to the Balmain area of Sydney hunting no doubt for 
more handbag shops and other jewellery market stalls, of which I think I had 
enough of in Paddington so I spent the afternoon on my lonesome strolling 
around the maritime museum taking in what history Australia has got. It was 
interesting learning about the convict days, the second world war and of 
course Captain Cooks adventures on the Endeavour of which a replica of the 
boat was afloat. I also got the chance to freely wander a battleship and a 
submarine (which would only be nice to work in if you love no windows, 35 
degrees celcius and if you are 4 feet tall)! The evening we met up with Ems 
cousin Kevin and his two friends Matt and Nicole along with Emma and of 
course Ems Mum and Grace for a nice last meal out all together which was 
great. I must admit downing all that wine got me pretty drunk by the end of 
the evening, and made for a groggy next day of which I knew I had a drive to 
do, and didn't even no where to yet!

So that was Sydney, the tears flowing again when Ems family returned home as 
we departed for the glory of Newcastle, (and yes it lives up to its name)! 
We left early the next morning for better places! We drove alittle inland to 
a town called Bulladelah and booked into a motel and hit the travel 
information place for info on the area. The guy was very helpful and sent us 
back toward the coast for a nice trek through the bush and to some lovely 
deserted beaches. The walk through the bush was nice except today was 
stupidly hot at 43 degrees, and a thirst was always bugging us. We did 
however stumble across 3 Goanna lizards which a a bit like Komodo dragons 
one of which was 4 feet long, she was a beaut (as steve irwin would say)! 
After basking on the beach we opted out of the last walk on the agenda and 
instead drove back to Bulladellah for a well deserved pint. We stayed at the 
pub for an evening meal overlooking the river and mountains for sunset and 
got chatting to some Brisbanites who kindly haver offered a nights stay too.

Another 10am check out and today we head for Forster-Tuncurry stopping off 
at several points on the way to take in the beauty of the lakes region here 
and the national parks. We did a 6km walk over sugar loaf point on some 
headland and it took us around to the side of the lakes. We had worked up an 
appetite so left Booti Booti National Park and headed to a windsurfing 
school and cafe for lunch. later that afternoon we stopped off to strech our 
legs and did another supposed 40 minute walk which took 20 minutes to 
another headland point called Cape Hawke. At the end of the walk we climbed 
a tower which had views for miles both ways and we could see the twin towns 
of Forster-Tuncurry. Forster itself was o.k., a small seaside town much like 
you'd get back home really.

Yesterday we drove all day pretty much to Nambucca heads and stayed in a 
caravan park in a small trailer. Here we again beached out for the afternoon 
then cooled off later for a swim in the lagoon next to the campsite which 
had a fun pontoon in the middle of it. The evening was strange. The local 
pub was rated for it's fresh seafood so I thought I'd risk it and share a 
seafood platter with Em. A bit of an expensive treat but heh we are on 
holiday! It turned out really nice, however the clouds were rolling in off 
the ocean and fork lightning began to surround us, stunning to look out but 
then all of a sudden the wind just went from nothing to cyclone strength. We 
were sitting on the decking out front when all of the tables, including ours 
just lifted off the ground and dissapeared down the road. Unfortunately a 
parasol smacked Emily on the head but only left her distressed about losing 
her lip gloss, which she later found. The pub got everyone in and locked all 
the doors. 20 minutes later the storm had passed and the barstaff started 
picking up the million shards of china strewn across the surroundings of the 
pub. The Hail started and all electricity was off, we had a break in the 
weather and strolled back to the caravan hoping that our towels that we left 
hanging outside over the table and chairs would still be there, they were 
but in a different location and very muddy, I think they got blown away but 
someone rescued them for us. It blew a window off of our caravan and smashed 
it though, and from what I heard in the morning blew someones tent away 
completely! Wow what excitement, one thing the storm didn't bring was a bit 
cooler weather and an incredibly sticky sleepless night in the van brought 
on another groggy drive in stupid temperatures up to here, Ballina, the 
start of the Gold coast. With a diversion off the Pacific highway inland 
where the heat is at its worst and longer too because of a bad accident on 
the road. Anyway, I'm writing more here than in my journal so i'll shut up 
and explore what Ballina has to offer other than a hot motel room with a 
window rattler A/c unit and an Internet cafe.

So see ya for now, and hope I'm boring you all to sleep with my emails!

Take care
Damion & Emily.
		

Hi all,

We've been packing it in again, feels like a NZ stray tour all over again, 
but without the delights of Kate and of course Auto! After a 2 night stay in 
Ballina we headed to Byron bay to check it out but was only really a drive 
through! I was keen to get to Nimbin to check out Australias little 
Amsterdam. After 10 minutes 6 people had offered me weed, each one dressed 
in 70's clothes. Time has stopped in 1971 or something for sure. Of course I 
politely refused the weed and just checked out the local hippy museum and 
continued back toward the gold coast to Surfers Paradise for a Saturday 
night boogey. The night started with a curry (of course) at the local Indian 
and after realising time had gone back an hour for us decided we had time to 
visit the cheesy Ripleys Believe it or not museum which actually turned out 
to be a good laugh. We then hit a few bars but found they lacked atmosphere 
and really wasn't that much choice. The next morning still slightly jaded we 
headed upto the North Brisbane suburbs to meet up with a couple who we met 
in Rarotonga in the Cooks. We stayed for nibbles and a swim in their pool 
which was really nice as their house is in the mountains with beautiful 
surroundings viewed from the pool! They gave us a list of places to visit as 
Tim was from Cairns and knew our route inside out. Good to catch up with 
them and get to know them more.

We then headed toward the Glasshouse Mountains and Beerwah to stay the night 
in a country motel and get up to go to the famous Australia Zoo that is 
where Steve Irwin tries to feed his baby to the crocs (did you see that on 
the news over there?) We both really enjoyed the experience here of watching 
crocs being fed along with an anaconda being fed rats (which gave Ems a 
nightmare...tee hee hee) and viewing a 25 foot reticulatred python which was 
absolutely massive and is fed goats! We both got to stroke koalas and Roos 
along with seeing small tiger cubs and dingo puppies being walked by their 
keepers around the grounds. All very interactive, being that we are still 
big kids we loved it!  The same evening we drove to Noosa heads and stayed 
in a nice but over priced motel and cooked ourselves a nice meal and chilled 
out. This morning we went to the beach but a few minutes after sitting down 
it started raining so here we are in the Internet cafe! But the sun is 
shining now and we will soon begin the 2 hour drive to Hervey Bay from where 
we will do a trip over to Fraser island. I am currently debating the hire of 
a Toyota Landcruiser and all the camping gear for $135 per day for a 3 day/2 
night self drive on the sand island. I'll check it all out later and decide 
if it's a good option having had no previous 4wd experience, but hey, I 
guess it's a good way to learn! Else it's a 4wd bus tour for 2 days/ 1 night 
which would also be nice but i don't think it'll be quite the same 
experience, than waking up from your tent with Dingo's licking your toes!

I'll let you know.

I hope the getting back into the work routine is not too hard on you guys 
after the crimbo break and that spring will come quickly for you all now! I 
hope all you guys at the Fire Station had a great christmas and new year, 
and Kev, whats been going on, have I missed any big jobs? and am I still 
needed on my return????

Talk to you all again shortly.
Damion
		

Hi All,

Well we opted for one night in Hervey bay and then hired a long wheel base 
land rover defender with all camping gear to go over to Fraser island and 
shared the cost with 5 other people, Heinz and Hannes from Austria (complete 
with their lederhosens, made from deer skin and their rabbit hat with 
feather on top), hilarious blokes who loved their drink binges at the 
campsite at night, two english girls, Becs and Louisa who were cool and one 
german girl, Sandra. Heinz and I shared the driving which was so so good. 
The offroading consisted of rainforest tracks which were very rough in 
places espescially after a lot of rainfall on the last day and beach driving 
in low tide on the harder stuff and round to Indian head on the very soft 
stuff where loads of people were getting bogged but luckily we managed to 
drive through without problems. The island was very beautiful with really 
nice freshwater lakes with white sandy beaches, the best being lake mckenzie 
and the awesome dunes at lake wabby. We stopped at many locations on the 
island for short walks through different conditions and also stopped to look 
at the Maheno ship wreck which actually sits on the beach, a tasman liner 
which was beached in 1935. Great stuff, and would highly recommend this to 
anyone coming this way in the future. Such good value for money too. 2 days/ 
3 nights for 50 pounds and that includes everything apart from your food and 
drinks! Bargain. And you get to put a landrover through its paces everyday!

Anyway, enough of my babbling. We spent last night again in Hervey bay 
sleeping back in a bed, a nice touch after laying on a hard floor in a 
stinking hot tent! and now continue north. We stopped at Bundabery and 
visited the Rum distillery and of course sampled lots of it, before stopping 
in Bargara just south of the coral coast where we shall stay tonight and 
watch the turtles come onto the beach to lay eggs and luckily we have hit it 
at the best time of year where we should hopefully see the hatchlings going 
to the sea too. Excellent stuff. Tomorrow we have a 400km drive to 
Rockhampton and then onto Airlie beach and the Whitsunday Islands. I'll let 
you know (of course) how that all goes too.

Hope everything is still going good. Take it easy.

Love from
Damion and Emily.
		

Dear all,

Hope you are all still well and entertaining yourselves through the cold 
winter nights!

Well since my last update we have basically continued the journey north. We 
left the coastal side of Bundaberg and drove 700 km in one day to Mackay, of 
which the 3 hours from Rockhampton to Mackay we didn't pass a single house! 
Very remote. Glad the car didn't play up on us that day!
On Arrival in Mackay we checked in to a motel off the main highway and drove 
into town. The town was pretty small but fairly lively with bars etc.. with 
a young feel to the place. We headed to an Irish bar for a meal and after a 
few bundys and cokes retired back to the room for a bit of r&r. The 
following morning we headed to the much talked about town (on the backpacker 
circuit anyway) of Airlie beach, basically a 300m road of shops, bars, 
restaurants with a nice man made lagoon. This is the gateway to the 
Whitsunday archipelego. We checked into Bushvillage backpackers, a friendly 
place in a jungle setting, just out of town and on the arrival day made use 
of the lagoon and bars! The following day we were supposed to go on a boat 
trip to a few of the islands but was cancelled due to bad weather. We ended 
up doing a 2 1/2 hour walk to the top of mount rooper for our first glimpse 
of the islands. Unfortunately due to the bad weather the view wasn't as good 
as it could of been but the exercise was good. The bad weather didn't lower 
the temperature though which made a bit of a sweaty trek! Nice!

The following morning the weather had improved and off we went on the boat. 
The first stop was a short walking track across a part of Whitsunday island 
to view the hill inlet, which was at high tide so didn't have the postcard 
look we were after! However, we continued and stopped for a gourmet bbq 
lunch on Whitehaven beach for a couple of hours roasting in the sun, and a 
quick risky dip in the water trying to avoid box jellyfish and sting rays! 
Good Stuff. The boat continued around the islands and stopped for another 
hour or so to let us off on the reef for some snorkelling. This was 
excellent, apart from a leaky mask. We saw many different very colourful 
corals and fish including a 5 foot Maori Wrasse which dispite his size 
looked pretty friendly, almost cartoon like. On the swim back to the boat we 
swam through hoards of batfish and got aboard for a rewarding can of VB. We 
headed back and in the evening went out for a Thai curry in preparation for 
our next country.

The morning after we drove to Townsville and spent the remainding part of 
the day after arrival exploring the ghost town and ended up going to the 
cinema to watch a comedy. The following morning we headed out on the ferry 
to Magnetic Island and did an 8km walk around the north east side of the 
island. This was great as no one else was on this walk and the beaches and 
bays had absolutely no one on them, fantastic. After the trek we had ran out 
of water and had to wait an hour for a bus and we weren't very happy. 
Fortunately, a couple pulled over in there mini moke and gave us a lift to 
town where a refreshing glass of coke and ice awaited! We got a taxi to the 
most southern point had a drink in the bar and got the bus back to get the 
ferry back to Townsville. As Townsville again had no life in town we headed 
back to the cinema to watch another movie, this time the last samurai, which 
we both really enjoyed.

The next morning we left townsville and got to Mission Beach a remote place 
where supposedly you can see wild cassowaries ( a giant prehistoric looking 
emu with a crest on its blue head) in the jungle. In the morning on a wicked 
hangover we did a jungle walk which we were plagued by mosquitoes in search 
of the damn bird but we didn't see it. We stopped for a needed expresso and 
did a long winding drive through the tablelands, stopping to look at crater 
lakes, waterfalls and a giant curtain fig tree. This took us all day and by 
the end of it just wanted to get our heads down for a sleep. We ended up 
making the drive to Cairns where we found a great little hostel with the 
luxury of a bath tub in our bathroom. After a nap and a soak we headed out 
to the Woolshed bar for a bite to eat and drink. The rest of the evening we 
wandered around the city centre and seafront and stopped at a magnificent 
photo gallery.

Today is Australia Day, nothing much is open and we didn't even get up until 
midday, we were that tired. We shall cool off in the modern looking lagoon 
(jellyfish free zone) and decide on what to do the next few days. Tonight is 
apparently a bit of a party night so will have to check out venues for where 
to party tonight!  Such a hard life!

Anyway, my emails don't get any shorter do they (quoted Kate Moroney) so 
i'll shut up now!
I have to do it so it goes on the website and i remember what i've done 
(that's my excuse anyway). The guy in the hostel asked us yesterday where we 
had driven from and both Emily and I looked at each other blankly and 
started laughing, we just couldn't remember, too many places in such a short 
time.

Take care,
until next time.

Damion and Emily
x
		

Hi All,

We have just returned from the most northern part of our itinerary in Oz. We 
have now driven over 5000 kilometres and managed to get to the point where 
sealed roads turn into dirt tracks. We stopped at a farmstay in Cape 
tribulation which is in the Daintree rainforest (the oldest rainforest in 
the world). We booked a guide and went on a nightwalk through the jungle. 
The first part of the walk consisted of walking through the farms orchards 
of tropical fruits. I tasted fruit I've never heard or seen before, it was 
great. The weirdest was a fruit originally from S.Africa called the miracle 
fruit. The guide made us first taste the bitterness of a lime then have the 
miracle fruit then again taste the lime. It turns the lime to tasting like 
pure sugar. Your taste buds stay sweet for about 2-3 hours and after the 
walk my beer tasted disgusting! After the fruits we entered the rainforest 
and saw lots of wildlife including cane toads, white lipped tree frogs, 
golden orb and large huntsman spiders and a few others, and the best part 
was seeing a night tiger snake rading a nest of mice in a sugar cane field 
and you could see the mice in its belly as they were being swallowed. The 
snake was a venomous snake and was about 6 foot long. Great stuff. We also 
saw flying foxes, many weird beetles - one about the length of my hand, and 
a croc in the creek. We ended up spending two nights there and also visited 
an environment centre forest canopy walk and visited mossman gorge and its 
waterfalls for a croc free refreshing dip in cool waters. Really lovely 
beaches, but none you could swim in for the risk of being either stung by 
deadly jellyfish or eaten by a saltwater croc.

We are now heading our way back towards Cairns, for the first time heading 
South and are staying here in Port Douglas for a couple of nights. A lovely 
small high st. town with a posh feel to it. Last night we entertained some 
people we met in Fraser Island, by coincidence we bumped into them here and 
spent 3 hours relaxing in a cafe chatting, followed by a couple of hours on 
the beach then retiring back to the motel for a swim in the pool and a bbq, 
with lovely steaks and kebabs! And a few too many rum and cokes! Hence 
getting up late today. We will have another day on the beach and maybe find 
a nice restaurant here tonight to eat and go back to Cairns in the morning, 
and put some effort in trying to get rid of the car! I think it's on its 
last legs now though. The power steering died yesterday, and now feels like 
driving a russian army tank! Still, it has paid for itself with what we have 
done and more i feel, so even leaving in the airport car park wouldn't 
really break our hearts!

We are meeting up with my friend Justin on the 10th February in Bangkok and 
I think we will go to the islands in the south of Thailand as he is keen to 
do some diving with us. Apparently it's good for dive sites and cheap too. 
Unlike diving on the Barrier Reef which is pretty pricey!

Anyway, too much emailing and not enough sunbathing!

Take Care
Damion
		

Hi All,

We have made it to Thailand. We met a friend of ours (Justin) in Bangkok and 
spent a day and a night checking out what Bangkok has to offer (and that's 
everything you'd want really)! The busy Khao San road and Pat pong...very 
interesting especially if you are into Go Go bars and fake rolex's! However, 
entertaining place with great night market and on the main Silon Road some 
excellent eateries. Something I think here is soooo good is the food, 
haven't had a bad meal yet, all good, especially the red curries with large 
Chang beer!

The following day we took a business class flight (that's all they had left) 
to Krabi for 50 pounds and have been here sightseeing things such as Railay 
Beach and other more remote beaches, Ao Nang town and of course Krabi itself 
which is real nice. We hired motorbikes and headed to the Monkey temple on 
the big hill to see many a monkey! And we took a day trip, two tank dive 
around the limestone outcrops of Ko Phi-Phi which was awesome...a must do. 
Better coral than what we saw on the Gt barrier reef and a chance to get a 
foot away from 2-3 metre leopard sharks milling on the ocean floor! Superb. 
Yesterday we took a 4 island tour around Poda, Chicken island and two other 
small islands for a spot of snorkelling and sunbathing, my friend Justin 
trying to get his last rays before returning to London last night. Today we 
are chilling after a week of tours etc. and are planning to go to Koh Lanta 
tomorrow. A lot quieter than Phi Phi apparently. I'll let you know how it 
all goes!

We are sitting around today planning our S.E. Asia itinerary for the next 
couple of months. We have decided to do the south islands of Thailand then 
head back to Bangkok, get our visas for Cambodia and go to Phnom Penh and 
get to Angkor Wat via the Tonte Sap lake then make our way through eastern 
Thailand into Laos. Stop for a while in Vientiane and make our way to the 
north of Thailand on the Mekong River to the Myanmar (Burma) border and make 
our way south to Bangkok via Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai for our onward flight 
to Hong Kong. This way we get more of a taste of this part of Asia and of 
course is so cheap to travel would be mad to leave in a hurry for the 
expensive parts of Asia such as Japan! Got to make the most of this!

I hope everyone is well at home and estimate at the moment being home early 
June sometime. I'll keep you posted!

Damion and Emily

		

Hi all,

We have arrived back to civilisation, if that's what they call that here in 
Trang!

We have been island hopping from Krabi to Koh Lanta which we stayed on for 3 
nights in a small beach bungalow on long beach. Great location and fairly 
quiet but with a few nice restaurants and bars. Our days there pretty much 
consisted of laying on the beach, going into the sea to cool off, eating 
probably too regularly and watching the sunset from the beach bar before 
heading out to eat again and drinking more Chang or Singha beer. We did 
however meet up with a couple from Leeds and Nottingham and we went out with 
them quite a bit. Jamie and I headed to some caves on our last day to do 
some caving, believe or not! Good fun, got to see cave dwelling spiders, 
bats and Elephants trekking through the forest outside. Also got to squeeze 
ourselves through small openings too, brought me back to the days of the rat 
tunnel on our breathing App course in the fire brigade.

The next island was Koh Ngai (hai) where we opted for the paradise resort. 
Excellent choice and lived up to its name. Another beach bungalow, this time 
with electricity only from 6pm - midnight, very remote. We had the crystal 
blue sea and white sands to ourselves all day and night. Great for bathing 
and star gazing and not a lot else. We did a couple of hikes though, one to 
the other end of the island, a steep 1 1/2 hr round trip and another short 
walk to a viewpoint on the head land.

This morning we got a 1 hour ride on a long tail boat from Ngai to the 
beaches of the Trang province and got a pickup ride for an hour into Trang 
town itself. So far I haven't seen a restaurant with Roman Script anywhere 
so better take my lonely bible to point at green curry everywhere I go to 
eat! We are staying right in the centre next a large clock tower which is 
apparently close to the nightmarkets, where at least you can point at what 
you want to eat! All good fun. Anyway, I'll talk again soon. We shall be in 
Trang 2 nights then will head to Nakhon Si Thamarat on the Thai Gulf for a 
bit of ancient temple sightseeing.

Take care
Damion and Emily

		

Dear All,

Hope you are all well as usual and hope the English/European winter is 
gradually going Springwards!
Feel free to let us know what you have all been doing as we are now 6 months 
into our trip and probably are a little out of touch with things at home and 
what is going on in the world. We here about all the news about Avian flu 
but to be honest the the chicken tastes too great to refuse, and of course 
the German Cannibal who refuses some of his willing victims, how depressing 
is that? Wanting to be eaten and being refused! Anyway, what's going on in 
Ashford... is NV a strip bar yet? is the circus in town? Has anyone at work 
been promoted? Are all the fish in the work aquarium still alive and has 
Archi been sold/donated yet? Has anyone proposed (Did Manhong propose today 
Mark?) or having a baby... and even regular stuff I want to hear it.

Anyway, I'll bore you all again with we have been doing.

We spent one night at a town called Trang and had a luxury room, so made the 
most of it and sat watching cable tv films and popping out for the odd bite 
to eat etc. It is not a tourist town at all and many people stare at you 
when you are in the streets and all the school kids say hello in English and 
laugh. There are many little shops there and stalls selling all sorts of 
food, one in particular that stuck in my mind was battered chicken feet! 
Nice. The actual town just serves local people and was really nothing to 
sightsee, hence watching tv for a night. We stayed one night then got a 
minivan the next day to Nakhon si Thamarat. Nakhon has a lot of history and 
there are many different religions, partly why we came was to check out the 
elaborate churches and temples (or wats as they are known here). Nakhon has 
the second largest buddhist temple in Thailand and of course had to see it. 
Pretty nice architecture and interesting large golden and ornate statues. We 
had to laugh and so did everyone we passed as we got a rickshaw to the 
temple (about 2km out of town) which had about enough room for Emily and I 
could only get one cheek on! This poor old guy, about 70 straining to get 
the bike up a small incline. We tipped him well and took a picture, he went 
off very happy! Funny experience. We didn't see any other tourists here 
apart from randomly bumping into Jamie and Adele who we had previously made 
friends with in Koh lanta. So we spent our 2 days sightseeing and evenings 
meeting up with them for meals and drinks.

After Nakhon we got a bus and ferry over to Koh Samui, a large and heavily 
touristed island in the Thai Gulf. We stayed 3 nights, spent way too much 
money and didn't really like the place much either. Everyone tries to sell 
you something, everything, even a coke is 4 times the price it is everywhere 
else we have been.. which in English money is still cheap but when you get 
used to paying less you expect that to be everywhere. They really do try to 
rip you off! The beaches weren't clean and the buildings really encroach 
right onto the beach and are all much too close to each other. So all in all 
not idyllic but made the most of just looking at all the tat for sale on the 
street stalls, stuffing western food such as Burger King and drinking too 
much alcohol. We did have a laugh though at a ladyboy cabaret show, and some 
of them are really hard to tell if they really are men..scary stuff! Very 
humourous nonetheless. They have no quarms about flashing their silicon 
boobs to you in the street for photos, all very odd!

Anyway, we left Samui as we found we were haemorraging money and have got to 
the next island south. Koh Pha Ngan. It is beautiful here and we have a 
bungalow with verandah and hammock that is on a hill overlooking the sea. 
Very nice. There is a secluded private beach with crystal waters and good 
reefs. So we are much happier, It's much cheaper too here, and thank the 
lord no sex tourists smuggling budgies in their speedos. Our bungalow with 
private bathroom is costing a whopping 5 quid a night, which is quite pricey 
apparently for here but the location is perfect. We will stay another couple 
of nights before either going another island north to Koh Tao or skipping 
that and spending extra time here then try to get directly back to the 
mainland somehow so we can get a train up to Bangkok. Our Thai visa expires 
on the 10th March so we need a day and night in Bangkok to sort out our 
Cambodian Visa before setting off toward Trat, near the border and chilling 
out on a national park island called Koh Chang close to Cambodia until our 
visa expires. We will then hop across by boat to Sihanoukville in Cambodia 
and start a 2 week hardcore travelling experience! Cambodia is the 8th 
poorest country in the world or something like that and I think it may be 
quite an eye opener. I look forward to it, but apparently deep fried 
tarantula is on the menu! So back to eating like we are in Peru again. I 
need to lose a couple of kilos so it's all good.

This will eventually (cheeky git! Crispin) get uploaded onto www.thegibbon.co.uk 
so please feel free to read this at home when you have more time! I feel my 
emails don't get any shorter but I kind of use them on my website as a log of 
where we have been and what it is like. So don't mean to bombard or bore!

See you all in around 3-4 months.

Love
Damion and Emily
x
		

Hi all,

As usual hope all is well back at home and for all the other travellers we 
have met on our way!

Since I last emailed you all, this is what we have been up to. We left the 
beautiful island of Koh Pha-Ngan which we both really enjoyed and if it 
weren't for our visas running out we would of stayed longer. We left and 
headed back up to Bangkok. The journey was a long one consisting of a 4 hr 
boat and 12 hr bus journey. We managed to sleep a little on the bus and had 
a bit of a kip back at the good old Thai hotel before going out to find out 
about getting a Cambodian visa and some US dollars to spend there as there 
are no ATM's in the whole country and the Riel currency is pretty unstable. 
We got it all sorted and spent the rest of the day looking around the 
markets of the Khao San Road before getting an early night ready for a 6 hr 
drive and 1 hour boat to the island of Koh Chang.

Our first impressions of Koh Chang weren't too great  as we arrived on the 
long weekend holiday for the Thais. They had all come from Bangkok and 
booked up every single place on the island. We tried several places along 
the beach with no luck and embarked on a mission to get back to the road 
literally up a steep road running straight up a mountain with all 20kg on 
our backs in hope of a taxi at the end of it, feeling weathered from 
travelling and stinking hot we weren't too happy, and ended just laughing I 
think with insanity! With luck a Thai couple in a pickup took pity on us and 
offered us a lift. Fortunately for us they were having the same difficulties 
in finding a room somewhere so offered us to go with them until we all found 
somewhere. 2 hours later we found somewhere at nightfall but only a tent on 
the beach for a rip off 500 baht too. We slept well and I got up early the 
next morning on a mission to find a better room. Fortunately a nice little 
guest house up the road had a room for 300 Baht which was newly built. We 
got up had brekkie and moved in. The owner 'Ed' was a really nice Thai guy 
and we got chatting for a while. He had befriended a swedish couple also and 
invited us to dinner in the evening as Johan and Ed had birthdays 2 days 
apart so were celebrating on the day between. The amount of food was just 
ridiculous as people from around the village kept coming to the table 
bringing offerings of food. A really cool place too. They refused to take 
any money for the meal as they said we were invited and guests do not pay 
for meals. After we hit a bar to play some pool and by this time we were all 
pretty full and drunk. I made sure I picked up the bar tab and we headed 
back to sleep it off. The next morning Johan and Anna left to get back to 
Bangkok and Sweden. Our days on Koh Chang were nice and most evenings we hit 
the really cool bars around and beached it during the day. Ed took us on a 
guided walk into the forest to a waterfall and also took us to Trat for the 
day to check out the Town. Trat reminded us a little of parts of Manaus in 
Brasil with it's huge distribution markets and fish market. I think we may 
even go back to Koh Chang and see Ed again just before leaving Thailand for 
a journey to Hong Kong.

The last day of Koh Chang and again Ed being so friendly offered to give us 
a lift to Hat Lek on the Thai side of the border to Cambodia. We said our 
goodbyes and crossed the border into Cambodia. With a couple of dollar bribe 
handovers we were in a cab on a dirt track with big holes in true Cambodian 
style to the border town of Koh Kong. A true border town full of motobikes 
and bicycles and the odd car every now and then. I think it's possibly the 
worst hotel I've stayed in too. Although the people were very friendly if 
not over friendly sometimes. The hotel manager offered me a huge bob marley 
spliff as I filled in my check in form and said welcome to Cambodia. All 
very bizarre. We were glad to leave Koh Kong as it really has nothing to 
offer. We headed the next morning in a minivan to Sihanoukville, a coastal 
town in the south of Cambodia. Here is much nicer, the people are again very 
friendly and the beach is very nice and quiet. The journey here was so cool, 
the roads all rubble and we took 3 car ''ferrys'' (kind of a raft with 2 car 
engines and propellers powering it, often spinning in circles before the 2 
guys on the engines eventually get in sync) across rivers. We met a guy that 
had a bike with English plates who had actaully riden all the way here from 
England, amazing! He'd gone through the whole of Europe and even through 
Iran and Pakistan all on an A reg BMW.

Today we are checking out Sihanoukvilles town and tomorrow will go to the 
Ream National Park to spot rare birds, dolphins and other wildlife on a 
guided boat tour around different tributaries. We plan to move up to Phnom 
Penh in about 3-4 days time once we are happy we have seen all there is to 
see here.

Altogether we have found already that Cambodia is completely different to 
Thailand although strangely a little more expensive. The people here are 
very poor but very trusting and friendly. It's the first time I have had 
small children doing the hard sell on the beach and already have given money 
to a landmine victim. It's a place with a very sad history but somehow is 
still smiling. We both look forward to the rest of our journey through 
Cambodia.

Our health is still good, Em had a bit of an ill spell last week but has 
fully recovered on the good food here in Cambodia. Which reminds me, we 
asked for a mango fruit shake on the beach yesterday and the waiter replied 
''do you want a happy shake?'' I stupidly replied ''What's that?'' He said 
''I can add some herb in it if you would like to feel happy sir" I said No 
but it really is that sort of place, anything goes!

Thanks for all of your emails recently it's good to hear from you all. Speak 
again soon.

Love
Damion and Emily
		

Dear all,

It's got to be at least a week now since I last wrote, so I in case you are 
all worried about us I'll enlighten you with our latest sagas.

After checking out the sights and smells of Sihanoukville town and its 
market it was time to see some of the countryside. We opted to get a moto 
(taxi motorbikes) to the Ream national park where we hired two park rangers 
and chartered the boat around the park. Over 200 sqkm the park has a massive 
diversity of marine animals and birds. The birdwatching was great, we saw 
amongst many others, herons, egrets, storks, kites and sea eagles. There 
were sightings of monkeys also eating fish from the mud at low tide beneath 
the mangroves. The day consisted of a visit to an isolated beach which we 
spent an hour just swimming and checking out the strange horseshoe crabs and 
laying in the sun. After this we took a 30 minute walk through the Jungle 
with the Ranger to a small fishing village where the villagers bring their 
shrimps to be dried for sale in the markets. We then headed back close to 
the mangroves hoping we'd maybe spot some dolphins but with no luck! The 
last day in Sihanoukville was a nothing day really, just relaxing before our 
bus journey the next morning to Phnom Penh.

A smooth bus journey on the best road in Cambodia and we were in Phnom Penh, 
Cambodias capital city. Already arranged for us from our moto drivers in 
Sihanoukville two guys with our names printed up on a notice picked us up 
from the bus terminal and took us to our hotel. We looked at it and it was 
pretty awful so went with their suggestion which turned out a good place in 
a very central location. It is here in Phnom Penh were my stomach gave up on 
me again and going out started to become a bit of a nightmare, I spent the 
whole next day in the room trying to get over the apparently almost 
guaranteed in Cambodia - Brad Pitts! Once starting to get over it all we 
started sightseeing again. First we checked out the National Museum which 
mainly consisted of many Pre Angkor and Angkorian artifacts and statues 
rescued from the Angkor temples in Siem Reap. The most interesting part of 
it was really the beautiful gardens in the central courtyard and the 
architecture of the building itself.

The next day we visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, in its 
ornate and prestine garden surroundings protected by the palace walls it was 
hard to believe that you were in Cambodia. It reminded me a bit of the 
palaces in communist Leningrad (St Petersburg) 12 years ago. It was very 
impressive and was being restored in many parts previously destroyed by the 
Khmer Rouge in the 70's. An Iron house given to the palace by Napolean III 
stood in the middle of the palace grounds which we both thought looked 
pretty abstract but also was really impressive too. The silver pagoda 
unfortunately had most of its silver tiles covered by carpet and had a 
diamond uncrusted chedi in the middle weighing 90kg which was lovely!

The following day we decided to go for the whole communist history bit and 
visited the S21 Genocidal Museum and the Killing Fields. Our moto drivers 
joined us for a breakfast coffee and told us of their family losses during 
the Khmer Rouge Regime under the infamous Pol Pot. My driver (24 years old) 
had lost his grandmother that he'd never met but Emily's driver (36 years 
old) was 12 when his mother and two sisters were murdered by the soldiers. 
This straight away put the mood of the day how it was to stay. We first 
visited the killing fields of Choeung Ek about 15km out of Phnom Penh on a 
very bumpy and dusty bike ride. The first thing you see as you enter the 
site is over 8000 skulls in displayed in a glass stupa monument all ordered 
by sex and age. These skulls had been unearthered from the pits they had 
been horrifically killed by and buried in just behind in the fields 
themselves. The fields still had bone remains scattered everywhere and 
clothing pertruding from the dirt, a truly harrowing sight which I don't 
think you can really comprehend.  After here we got back on the bikes and 
went to S21, previously a school converted by the khmer rouge into a prison 
where 17000 men, women and children were held during the regime before being 
executed at Choeung Ek. Today it stands as the Genonocidal Museum which 
displays the tiny cells they were kept in and pictures of almost every 
detained person. It also displays the interogation rooms in which 7 Khmer 
Rouge soldiers were found dead in when the city was fled and the Vietnamese 
invaded and the photgraphs on the walls of each room in the state that they 
were found, some had pictures of birds eating the corpses; very grim. We 
couldn't believe this had happened in our lifetimes. Over 2 million 
Cambodians were killed under Pol Pots regime and I'm suprised to see the 
city so affluent today after all of it horror stories.

Somehow the Cambodians have got out of the rut they were in and now the city 
is definitely slowly getting on its feet. There is still much poverty in the 
streets but tourism is getting bigger and the money and aid is coming in. 
Our evenings of Phnom Penh were very good and many cool trendy little bars 
can be found down many of the side streets and along the river. The last day 
in Phnom Penh we checked out the commerce and Emily whisked me around the 
markets and shopping centre which were both pretty unimpressive. The next 
day our trusty moto drivers picked us up at 6.30am to catch our 7am boat on 
the Tonle Sap to Siem Reap, a 4 hr boat that actually took 7hrs, but they do 
say ask how long and then double it!

Again the good moto drivers arranged their 'friend' at the port surrounded 
by the vietnamese floating villages to pick us up, this time by the luxury 
of A/C car! He took us to another slightly more expensive hotel in town and 
has arranged to pick us up this afternoon to get our 3 day passes for Angkor 
and to squeeze in a free afternoon sunset (if you buy the tickets after 
4pm)! Yesterday afternoon we browsed the markets and bought a few souvenirs 
(more shit to carry) before having a few games of pool and tiger draft at 
the Ivy house bar.

So that's that! Another Epic. I hope I haven't bored you all stupid again!

Hope everyone is all well as usual and look forward to hearing from you all 
soon!!!!

Love
Damion and Emily
		

Hi all,

Another exciting update for you all!

Since my last update we have spent 3 days exploring the temples of Angkor in 
Siem Reap, Cambodia. The ancient ruins were spectacular and we managed 3 
long days of getting up (for photographic reasons mainly) at Sunrise and 
going right through to sunset, we did however have a siesta on two of the 
days! The temperature at 5am when leaving was 30 degrees and by 11 am it was 
over 40 everyday, it really gave you temple fatigue between the hours of 11 
and 3. The good thing is if you plan your temples right you can be in the 
tree covered ruins at those times. I really can't get words for how 
magnificent the architecture is and how much work has gone into the detail 
that is present. Really you'll have to explore them yourselves to appreciate 
it. After being templed out we spent a day just relaxing around the town 
itself. In the afternoon we visited a small butterfly garden which offered 
home made ice cream and strange cocktails you could drink in the garden 
itself surrounded by 3000 butterflies (apparently)! In the evening we hit a 
few trendy looking bars before heading back for yet another day travelling.

We left Siem Reap at 6.30 for a boat bound for Cambodias second largest city 
of Battambang. We mainly chose this route because the road from Siem Reap to 
Poipet (Cambodia border town into Thailand) we had heard was terrible and 
although longer this would avoid the worst of it... or so we thought. As it 
was dry season the waters were so low the boat grounded on several occasions 
and with the usual random faffing in true Cambodian style we arrived in 
Battambang at 1pm, or so we thought! We were then enlightened that the river 
was too low to navigate and that Battambang was actually another 2 hours by 
minibus off road! Well my arse completely left the seat of the bus at least 
10 times, the air con had broken and we were all "sweating bullets", I 
thought the roads on Fraser island were bad, this was a joke. On arrival in 
Battambang, wanting spinal surgery we had the joy of only one option of 
getting to our hotel! As the transfer bus was full and there was no option 
we dumped our bags on the roof of the bus and clambered 3 ups on a scooter! 
Great! Luckily it was only down the road but outside the main Psar Leu 
(Market) a moped rider with pillion was riding like a maniac and clipped 
another bike right in front of us and they both came off, the rider seemed 
to get up pretty much instantly with what seemed just like a bad leg while 
his pillian passenger went head first into the ground (no crash helmet of 
course) and skidded along on his face. He laid lifeless in the road and 
people from the market stalls gathered around him. Lucky for him the 
hospital we later found out was at the end of the road!

Well having safely arrived at our 5 dollar hotel room, Emily very shaken up 
form witnessing the crash we swiftly went for a calming drink and later 
headed out to explore this town. Battambang basically is no bigger than 
Ashford (for those who know it) and sits on the river stung which runs off 
the Tonle Sap. It is pretty rich in French colonial buildings but none of 
which are very well preserved. We did however find a few good and bad 
drinking holes, the good being a riverside balcony bar in which Angelina 
Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton frequented during the filming of Tomb Raider 
and another dodgy karaoke bar where we got mobbed by the beer girls selling 
their different brands... it was horrific but funny watching it... they were 
so busy fighting over selling us either Tiger or Angkor, I opted for 1 of 
each being the diplomat! Well that got that wrong too and I ended up with 2 
of each, unknowned to me as they were in the ice bucket. After sharing 1 
Angkor the Angkor girl came over and cracked open the next Angkor can, I 
queried why I had 2 Angkors and no Tiger then she showed me that I had the 2 
Tigers too. Wanting to leave quickly to stop my ears from bleeding at the 
extremely loud and extremely bad karaoke racket I argued that I didn't want 
the Tiger as I only wanted 2 beers! If looks could kill! The Tiger girl I 
think wanted to crack it over my head, boy was she pissed, and even more 
annoyed that the Angkor girl just lauged and almost gloated that we didn't 
want her beers! We quickly escaped and found the balcony bar! The joy of 
beer wars...not!

Anyway, we spent the next day in Battambang too, just relaxing and wandering 
around aimlessly really. The afternoon brought on a lot of rain and a storm, 
something we hadn't seen for 3 weeks. It cooled the air and was very 
refreshing. The next morning we grabbed a shared cab with a girl from 
Tunbridge Wells belive it or not to the border town of Poipet. 3 hours of 
the driver sitting an inch from the wheel constantly on the horn past every 
vehicle looking posessed! We thank god arrived safely again to do the usual 
walk over the border with all 25kgs (heavier now from all the Angkor 
Souvenirs) into Thailand. We sat on the Thai side with a drink and haggled 
over the price of a minvan to Khorat (Thailands second largest city in the 
North East). Apparently only 2 people roughly a week want to go from poipet 
to Khorat, and it showed by the price 270 baht to Bangkok or 2700 baht to 
Khorat which is closer. He explained because he would have 10 people easy to 
Bangkok but we'd have to pay for all 10 seats and literally hire our own van 
to take us to Khorat. We did the Maths and worked out it would work out 
cheaper (but longer) to go to Bangkok stay the night and get a bus to Khorat 
the next day. But at the last minute 2 Thai's turned up asking to go to 
Khorat as well. Still expensive the price had dropped from 2700 to 1400. We 
accepted and were on our way. Another 3 hours later we got to our 
preselected hotel and went out to check out Khorat. No other tourists in 
site anywhere apart from a few ex vietnam veterans chatting about the good 
old days in Dunkin Donuts! A nice town especially if you are into shopping 
and cheaply too! I talked Em into a new pair of shoes as hers were looking 
pretty rough! (All of 3 pounds)!!!

After 2 nights in Khorat we were ready to move on and we headed fro the Laos 
border. The bus took an unexpected 7 hours (in the lonely planet it said 3 
1/2 hours) which made us spend the night on the Thai side in Nong Khai, a 
nice little town with great food stalls etc.. We witnessed another major 
storm, this time with the wind breaking things! Before waking up to a cooler 
morning fro our crossover the Thai-Lao friendship bridge and onto the Laos 
capital of Vientiane.

So here we are in Vientiane. Today we had a lot of faffing at customs 
sorting out visas etc and then checked into a sweet little 8 dollar a night 
guest house right in the centre and went to the National History Museum to 
learn a little about where we are now! This evening we have walked around 
what seems like the smallest capital I've ever seen before writing this epic 
email! So there you have it, another essay from us!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Hope you are all o.k. and look forward to hearing from you all as always!

Damion and Emily
		

Hi all,

Hope you all have had a great Easter and aren't all too sick of chocolate by 
now. There has been no sign of Easter here but we have seen chicks hatching, 
I have however, been missing the delights of opening a good Yorkie egg 
though!

Since my last epic we have left Vientiane having spent 4 days there. I think 
maybe 2 would have been enough, but we have covered a lot ground in the past 
week and really didn't want to sit on a bus for a few days. We visited the 
best sites, including more wats (buddha overdose), the giant golden stupa of 
Pha That Luang, the Patuxai - Laos attempt at the Arc de Triumph but without 
the Champs Elysees and a few more bars and many a french restaurant (good 
red wine at last).

The following morning we got a 4 hour minivan ride to a small town called 
Vang Vieng, a refreshing change in landscape as we hadn't seen a decent hill 
in a while. Van Vieng is a bit of a backpacker haven and is a popular place 
to break the journey between Vientiane and Luang Prabang and basically to 
have a bit of fun and chill out. The first day we spent walking around the 
market stools and having a beer on the river at the sunset bar admiring the 
backdrop of huge limestone cliff faced mountains. The second day we stupidly 
set out on a long walk to some caves in the mountains in the midday sun 
(when will we learn)? Having sweated like never before we finally reached 
the caves which, were definitely not worth all the effort and having nearly 
knocked myself unconcious on a stalagtite and Emily nearly passing out from 
the heat, getting snorted at by Buffalo and having to walk back completely 
dehydrated it wasn't the best plan. I actually craved a cold coke nearly as 
much as after the Inca trail. The next day we got up late had another stroll 
and took cover in a bar and watched a movie as a storm relentlessly battered 
the town into the evening. We were dubious of it getting better for the next 
day as we had booked a tubing trip on the river the next day and from the 
bar we watched many pissed off people walking along looking very wet and 
cold with a tube in hand.

Thankfully it was an o.k. day, slightly overcast but good for tubing as not 
to get too sunburnt. The Jumbo (TukTuk) took us about 3 km upstream and 
dropped us off by the river. We waded into the fastest current about knee 
deep and got in our rings and off we went. Along the way were many shacks 
set up selling Beerlao, which we obviously had to stop at. The tubing beer 
cruise. We actually didn't divulge too much and settled with just the one 
stop off, it was actually just really enjoyable slowly meandering through 
the river with no engine noise. Complete silence through the coutryside, 
great stuff. The weather stood up well and after a good 3 hours after 
grounding out on some rocks through some rapids we got to the finish point 
and slopped back to our 3 dollar guesthouse for a lovely cold shower  (it 
had broken this morning..hoorah). Feeling chilled and hungry we set out for 
a hot spicy curry and a Lao Rum to warm us up. The last day we took a tuktuk 
(this actually being like half a tractor lawnmower carrying a cart) to some 
other caves that had been converted into a bunker in defence against 
marauding Yunanese Chinese in the early 19th century. It was a large cave 
complex with well built stairs and small rooms and amazing views of the 
valley and villages through openings in the limestone cliff face. All very 
nice.

Another 4 days spent and we were on a 7 hour minivan trip through the hills 
to the world heritage town of Luang Prabang in Nothern Laos. With a couple 
of stop offs, one being at the edge of a drop off to admire the view of a 
the crumpled remains of a bus that went over the cliff in some fog just 
yesterday! This time the driver seemed pretty safe only overtaking on blind 
bends twice instead of all of the time. We arrived late afternoon and found 
a nice little 10 dollar guesthouse near the Mekong river in the old town. 
Immediately you could see why it is world heritage. It is very different 
from most other places in S.E. Asia, very old looking, well preserved with a 
mixture of 1920's French Colonial houses and traditional wooden Lao houses 
set on a peninsula between two rivers. Very picturesque with amazing looking 
Wats and fantastic restaurants and bars. We are here for Lao New Year and 
over the next few days we are expecting big processions, markets and 
celebrations which we are looking forward to. The locals, especially the 
children take to soaking anyone in the streets as a tradition by using any 
means possible as part of the lead up to New Year (13th April). We have 
encountered a jumbo full of tourists armed with pump action water shotguns 
taking vengeance on a town cruise getting all the locals back creating a 
water battlefield. It's so hot here now that it is actually quite refreshing 
when you get hit although it usually comes unexpected and gives you a quick 
shock. Yesterday we had a 19 mtr boat to ourselves with boatman and took a 3 
hour cruise to a the Lao Whiskey village, sampled some of their fine 
beverages and went on to visit the Pak Ou caves (basically a cave converted 
into a wat). We climbed a huge set of stairs to find yet more buddhas and 
quickly turned around and went back down to another lower cavern with yet 
again more buddhas! Having now had a complete buddha overdose we were ready 
to go. Just over the river sat a small village where we sat a had yet 
another curry in a restaurant overlooking the Mekhong River and had a stroll 
round looking at the handicrafts and general Lao life in the sticks. It was 
a really nice day and our boat man was a good chap too, charging us only 12 
dollars to hire his boat for the whole day.

Today we are doing the Lonely Planet walking tour of the town which breaks 
for lunch to get out of the midday heat... so here I am. At 1.30 the Royal 
Palace grounds open up so we will start our afternoon there. So far it has 
been a great walk and can't wait to show you the pictures. If you come to 
S.E.Asia add Luang Prabang to the list of places to visit, it's great.

New Years day is tommorow so we will celebrate in true New Year fashion I'm 
sure and have the next day to recover at the local waterfalls and swimming 
holes before embarking on a 2 day river journey on a slow boat on the 
Mekhong to Huay Xai on the Thai border having used up our 15 day visa. I'll 
make sure I'll take a good book!!!

Anyway Happy Easter and from Laos, Happy New Year.

Take care
Damion and Emily
x
		

Hi all, the next saga.....

Well, new year was a blast. The town of Luang Prabang turn into a water, 
flour and car grease war zone for 4 days. Luckily we all managed to avoid 
the car grease but getting floured and soaked was something that happened at 
least every 10 minutes or so. Even when you got changed to go out in the 
evening and walked the side streets trying to avoid the battlefields some 
kids would be around the corner waiting patiently for you with there hose, 
guns and bags of flour!

On New years day itself we took a boat across the Mekong to a festival being 
held the other side. There were loads of tents set up, competitions of 
distance rocket firing to win crates of beerlao, and of course all out war. 
Children filling up their pump action water guns on the rivers edge and 
rubbing flour into each others faces everywhere. The air filled with flour 
we headed in the midday sun to a tent for a cold drink (We being: 2 
S.African guys we met, 1 Californian girl, 1 Finnish guy and a another guy 
from Rochester who we had met up with on a bus from Vang Vieng to Luang 
Prabang). It wasn't long before the attacks started from passers by and 
before long we had turned this poor girls temporary restaurant into a bunker 
under attack! After an hour of complete warfare between us and a group of 
Thai kids and other tourists (using our water guns, bottles of water and 
flour) the disgusted look of the proprieter urged us to leave. We were 
getting hungry and amongst the mayhem we tried looking for somewhere to eat. 
Well to our dissapointment all there was at every place was either barbecued 
cows intestines and tongue kebabs or chicken feet! I tried a kebab and 
decided it wasn't for us and we all got back on a boat to the otherside in 
search of somewhere to eat. The main side was still alive with water based 
activities but at least the flour had subsided for now. We ended the evening 
all dining out together and of course finishing the day out in a couple of 
bars!

The second day of the celebrations included a big procession and more water 
fights. We had to make a decision as to how we were going to leave Laos. We 
had previously decided to do the slow boat but Em having a touch of the 
Delhi Belly we thought about taking a flight direct to Chiang Mai. All 
flights were booked up for a week so it had to be the boat. For a while we 
had a mad idea of chartering our own speedboat but half the group were not 
game. Slow boat it was. We got up early the next morning for a good 
breakfast before boarding the 8am boat luckily Emily was getting a whole lot 
better. The celebrations of water had stopped for now and all the monks were 
in procession on the streets with all the locals kneeling on the paths 
giving gifts of food to the monks, something we probably wouldn't of seen 
getting up at our normal times! All very bizarre. We got on the most 
uncomfortable boat in the world and sat on it for 10 hours, although the 
scenery was great. We spent a night in the small town of Pakbeng to break 
the journey and on the second day the boat was supposed to arrive before 6pm 
at Huay Xai so we could cross the border into Thailand in the north. 
However, that evening a storm broke out whilst on the boat which was 
accompanied with very strong winds that ripped the whole roof off the boat 
and very nearly capsized and sank it! Boy what a nightmare, everything 
soaked and battered we hit a sand bank secured the boat to it and waited for 
it to pass. 40 minutes later all the lads disembarked to retrieve the roof 
and half heartedly got it back on the roof....fun fun fun (obviously still 
raining hard). We carried on chugging up the river and got to the border to 
find out the border was closed and spent another night in Laos. Costing us 
20 bucks for overstaying our visa by a day. We got up real early again this 
morning to get a minivan to Chiang Mai. 6 hours later we arrived and very 
tired just went out with our group for a meal. The next day tired from 3 
solid days of hellish travelling we decided to opt for a day alone and went 
to Chiang Mai's city park to relax and plan the rest of our route through 
Thailand and lay in the shade, at 43 degrees laying in the sun wasn't an 
option.

Yesterday we went on a mammoth trip to the northern border of Thailand on 
the Myanmar side, stopping off on the way at a butterfly and orchid farm, a 
huge cave complex turned into a shrine by the ancient Burmese people, a 
giant buddha on the top of a hill overlooking the town of Tha Ton and 
Myanmar then onto the main part of the trip - visiting tribal villages. 
There were 3 tribes all living in walking distance from each other, the 
Akha, Lahu and Paduang. The Akha wore aluminium coined decorative hats and 
mostly to our dissapointment, western clothes, apart from one old lady who 
had the worse black teeth I've ever seen (got the photo - for you guys to 
appreciate it too). They were hard sellers too and not too friendly. The 
Lahu were the complete opposite, in traditional costume a man sat playing a 
strange musical pipe instrument with his wife who looked like they hadn't 
moved from that position in years and a younger lad smoking a huge opium 
bong (water pipe) looking very vacant! all very friendly a very willing for 
us to take pictures of them with their huge ear piercings stretching their 
ear lobes. The third tribe was really who we'd come to see the Paduang (or 
Karen long neck tribe). Originally from Myanmar this tribe were great, very 
friendly and some spoke good english. I sat and had a chat to one girl for a 
while. They look very pretty all made up but yet real odd with their brass 
5kg coils wrapped around their necks stretching their necks and forcing 
their shoulders down. We were shown how uncomfortable they must be as our 
guide pointed out the huge bruises under and above the coil. All a very odd 
custom thought to originate to stop tigers dragging them by their necks into 
the jungle. They were very photographic and great to catch them just doing 
normal stuff rather than just sitting and posing for the camera. Even the 8 
year old girls wore these things! Of course the men can't wear such things 
as they have to be mobile for hunting (the girls suggesting this was 
typical).

Today is stupidly hot again, we thought about going to the national park to 
do some walking but it really is just hot to even think about. So we are 
going to sightsee some more of the city and hit the night markets tonight 
and find some good eating stalls too. We leave tomorrow night and take a 
night sleeper train to Ayuthaya, Thailands (Siam's) old capital and Unesco 
world heritage temple site. I'll let you know how it goes!

Hope all is good!

Damion and Emily
xx
		

Hi all,

Hope you are all well as usual. Thought i'd let you all know how we are 
getting on again!

Well since leaving our last beach destination of Hua Hin in Thailand we left 
for Bangkok. We knew in Bangkok we had to arrange to get hold of a Japan 
Rail pass for cheaper travel within Japan but this could only be bought 
outside Japan. What a mission that turned out to be. 1 day of hassle on the 
worst congested roads in the world taking over an hour to cover 8km to find 
out that it was a Thai holiday and they couldn't issue the pass until 
tomorrow, he recommended another place we could get it so we thought we'd go 
for that option, so we boarded the skytrain and got off near Siam Square to 
get the pass to find out they no longer issue them. We wandered around Siam 
Square got bored so decided to catch a movie at the cinema. Our budget not 
allowing the luxury gold cinema with massaging leather arm chairs we opted 
for the nrmal but huge theartre to watch Van Helsing on it's release day. A 
few drinks in the confine of our guesthouse that contained the hardest bed 
I've ever slept on for a rough nights sleep, an early check out for a more 
comfortable bed in a different guesthouse and another hour or so in the cab 
for this blooming rail pass! At last success, 2 rail passes at the bargain 
price of 240 pounds each! That's like 17000 baht! Expensive, but necessary. 
We wandered the rest of the day aimlessly around the khoa san area really 
looking forward to getting out of here for Hong Kong.

An Early flight to Hong Kong and with the transportation from the airport we 
arrived at around 5pm at our selected hostel with the double bed that was 
smaller than some singles I've slept in. It was a micro room but was new, 
clean and had the luxury of tv and free internet and was cheap for HK too. 
We were located in Causeway bay, pretty much in the centre of HK island, 
only a short tram ride to Central for all the stunning skyscrapers and bars 
etc.. The first night we explored Causeway bay and tried economy express 
chinese food, a bit sloppy but edible, still prices cheap but expensive 
compared with Thailand. The next day we hit central and did a 3km walking 
tour taking in the stunning architecture and amazingly tall funky 
skyscrapers followed by lunch and another walking tour around the Cheun Wan 
area taking in a temple and oddities for sale for medicine including dried 
lizards on a stick, sea horses, dried fish/shark fins, deer antlers and yes 
swallow nests. Apparently they love it! Swallownest soup anyone? We strolled 
a small market and checked out the seal chops used as a stamp signature 
(which Emily thought we were looking for seal chops as in the meat variety. 
I guess it could be believed). In the evening we went to SOHO and Lan kwai 
fong to check out the heart of HKs nightlife. Finding happy hour we had a 
beer and strolled to take it all in. What an excellent city I was well 
impressed by its cleanliness, transportation system, its buildings and the 
nightlife.

Day 2 we went to the other side of the island to have a look around Stanley 
market and Repulse bay beach. All very nice and another hot day. The 
afternoon was clear so we caught the peak tram up victoria peak and did 
another 3km walk around the top to take in the breathtaking views of this 
massive modern metropolis. We had a sunset meal and beer at the top and 
watched the city lights. We walked around Wan Chai in the evening back 
closer to central for a look and then headed back.

Day 3 we left the island for Kowloon on the mainland. More breathtaking 
views this time looking across the harbour onto the city. We first headed to 
the HK national history museum and learnt a lot about its history which to 
be honest I wasn't too clued up on. The museum was fantastic and took you 
back 400,000,000 years ago about the creation of HK right up to the handover 
of HK from the British to the Chinese. After we took in another walking tour 
around Kowloon central taking in the Peninsula hotel and its designer 
clothes shops, the park and its aviary and the temple st market. Another 
dodgy budget meal in a Macau style restaurant and back to the star ferry 
terminal for some night photos across the harbour and to watch the weird 
lights and lazer shows put on at 8pm every night. All very bizarre but 
nonetheless impressive. Hong Kong was a very exciting city and I recommend a 
city break there for anyone seeking out a mad time in a crazy place 
where east meets the west.

The next morning another early start for our flight to Narita, Japan. An 
excellent flight on a spanking new plane complete with personal tv, dvd, 
playstation and red spots on the wings! Of course no delay in true japanese 
style. We exchanged our orders for our railpass and boarded the packed 
express train to Tokyo. This took about an hour and dumped us in central 
tokyo station in rush hour. The crowds pick you up, take you in a direction, 
possibly not your choice of direction either and dump you off somewhere else 
unknown and completely unfamiliar. Japanese text everywhere and random 
trainline names was all we had to go on. We boarded another 2 packed trains 
to finally get us to Asakusa where we are staying, the old part of Tokyo. 
Arriving late afternoon and really tired after our mammoth 3 days in HK we 
checked into a traditional Japanese Ryokan and slept very uncomfortably on a 
hard futon in a room with paper walls and sliding doors. We ventured out for 
a Asahi beer and some Jap snacks in a small bar in the evening and hit the 
sack after a tiring travel day.

Our first day in Japan consisted of a good old Starbucks coffee to kick 
start us and a mission to find another place to stay as the Ryokan only had 
1 night for us to stay. We found a good cheap hostel on the river with 
excellent views from its rooftop terrace and checked in for the next 3 
nights. The afternoon we had planned to meet Tomo, a friend of Emily's 
brother we had kept in contact with since the dawn of our travels. He met us 
at the hostel and in true tradition treated us to a really unforgetable day. 
We started out at the Senjo Ji temple just up the road from the hostel then 
went onto the Edo/Tokyo museum to learn about the history of Tokyo. After 
Emily mentioned Sumo so immediately Tomo whisked us off to a Sumo wrestling 
competition in the National Arena and watched the best fighters in Japan 
blubber it out! After we went to check out Tomo's place which was of course 
very nice but traditionally also very small. We stayed for a tea until his 
wife arrived home and we headed out together for traditonal Japanese 
cuisine. The food consisted of sushi, in many forms and tofu, soup, kebabs, 
rice, pickles and Asahi and Saki to drink. I'm not the biggest fish eater 
but this was amazingly tasty. A truly special day. The next day we were on 
our own and we did a walking tour of the central area of Tokyo and the 
imperial palace gardens. After we headed to the Ginza area for a peak and 
visited the Sony building to play with the gadgetry and to tease the ibo 
dogs. All good fun. The evening we headed into the nightscene area of 
Shinjuku with its neon lights and party atmosphere. We found a bar and had a 
yard glass of Asahi and more fish to eat. We browsed the nightscene and 
looked ages for a nightclub to see what was playing for tonight to find out 
it had closed down (the liquid rooms), so it looks like the Asahi brewery 
over the river is our best option for Asahi o'clock.

After the city madness over the last few days we wound it down a bit today 
and took a cruise up the river into Tokyo bay and checked out the area. We 
walked to the Tokyo tower and visited a temple to catch a buddhist ritual in 
its motion consisting of the banging on big drums and lots of 
indistinguishable murmering in an ancient Japanese manor. We just met up 
with Suguru for a quick chat before he went to work and have planned to go 
out on the 24th on our return to Tokyo. We met him in Cambodia and is keen 
to learn more English and show us good nightspots. So that`s Tokyo so far. 
Tommorow we are heading into the country at Kamaguchi ko lakes for picture 
postcard reflecting views of the lakes and mount Fuji. We are hoping we can 
stay in another cheapish Ryokan (Cheap being 40 pounds - 10 times more than 
Thailand...ouch) and have the luxury of a hot tub outside with good views. 
I'll bore you all with that later on.

Sorry for the mammoth email, it's hard remembering it all and having this on 
the site will remind me!

Hope this reaches you all in good health and i'll see most of you in a 
months time.

Cheers
Damion and Emily
		

Hello All,

Well we got want we wanted, we headed for the Fuji lakes in Kawaguchi-ko and 
spent 2 nights in a traditional ryokan complete with sliding doors, tatami 
mats, rice paper sliding windows, low table, our own yakatas (jap bathwear) 
and of course green tea on tap. We spent a couple of days wandering around 
the lakes around the base of Mt Fuji and having the luxury of large indoor 
and outdoor private baths (onsens) to share and admire the nice but 
unfortunately clouded view of the montrous volcano.

From Fuji we spent a day on the trains to get to Takayama. A small old town 
with traditional farmhouses and views towards the Japan Alps. We visited an 
open air museum and strolled the streets and park to take in the nice fresh 
air, nice to get away from the smoke for a while. We stayed in a youth 
hostel which was pretty regimented. Birds singing on a stereo speaker in the 
rooms at 7am to get you up and big brother announcements to tell you what 
times the men and women could use the baths and the joy of a 9.45pm curfew! 
I was amazed by the toilets here and other places in Japan...a control pad 
at the side with 4 different spray wash settings, a blowdryer and a button 
that made the computerised sound of a flush to hide the embarrasment of fart 
noises and heated seats that massage your butt too! Excellent.

After that we went to Kyoto. We took in lots of temples and ate good food 
amidst the grey and rainy weather. All very nice apart from the rain. After 
Kyoto we headed out a bit into the countryside again to Nara. Nara was 
great, temples more impressive than some of Kyotos with a nicer feeling to 
the place. Deer roam the streets everywhere hassling you for food and 
ganging up on Emily with her pack of deer biscuits. After Nara we went to 
Himeji, famed for its castle. Unbeknown to us there was a Matsuri (religious 
festival) being held and to Emilys' joy many men in just their jocks (like 
sumos). The castle was amazing and we really enjoyed it. After this we got 
the bullet train to Hiroshima, famous for being the first place to be bombed 
by the atomic bomb in 1945. We visited the peace park, A bomb museum and saw 
the remains of one of the buildings now kept as a world heritage site in 
rememberance of what happened there. Very touching but the place had a very 
relaxed pace and seemed very peaceful. We also took time to get off the 
mainland and went to the island of Miyajima. The island is famous in Japan 
for its floating shrine, apparently the third best view in the whole of 
Japan. It was a lovely day but the tide was out making the temple look like 
it was submerged in mud rather than floating! Still a good place to visit 
and see the Japanese sea.

To conclude our trip to Japan we got another Shinkansen from Hiroshima to 
Tokyo, these are faster than the Eurostar and go at 200 plus mph through 
towns and stations, amazing seeing them come through a station whilst on the 
platform, blink and you miss them. Tomo had kindly offered us a place to 
stay so we headed straight there. He welcomed us with a meal and usage of 
his laptop to check our mail, something of a luxury here in Japan with its 
high prices. We sat around chatting for a bit and Em and I headed out on the 
town for a night out. We met Suguru (who we met in Cambodia) and Justin and 
Yukari (Who we met in Oz) and went to a cheap bar and got pretty tipsy on a 
varietry of beverages. We had a real laugh and headed back to Tomos about 
1am thinking about getting up real early for our flight to Beijing.

Our start to China was a bit odd. The 747 plane was struck by lightning on 
the way which was very loud and frightening causing much concern to a few 
passengers but she seemed to stay up there alright! I actually asked the 
hostess about it afterwards as I witnessed the bolt of lightning hit the 
wing and she said in 8 years it has happened twice to her! As you guessed it 
was raining in China and on finally getting to our hostel by bus and 
rickshaw it was fully booked. Back on the rickshaw for another pricier hotel 
but fortunately nothing like Japanese prices. After a stroll around the area 
in the evening once the rain had stopped we crashed out feeling really 
tired.

Today we visited Tianamen Square and the South East Watchtower in the 
scorching sunshine which was really nice. All seems very communist reminding 
me of my holday in Moscow and St Petersburg when I was younger but a lot 
warmer. Tommorow we are going to the Forbidden City and other major sites 
during the end of the week before going off on a side trip to the Great 
Wall. I'll bore you with that later!

So, all good so far, finding ourselves a bit lost in translation here but 
we'll manage I'm sure and will make the very most of our last 3 weeks away. 
Until then.

Take care and look forward to seeing you all soon.
Damion and Emily.
		

Hi all,

The days finally numbered on the travelling stint now I thought I'd let you 
enjoy a penultimate read.

We are in good old communist China at the moment. I'm to be honest pretty 
dissapointed with the place and the food is liking eating lips and ass on a 
daily basis, wherever you go. I was however, impressed with going to the 
Great Wall, in true backpacker style we got ourselves there on public 
transport rather than taking the rip off tour that takes the first 2 hrs 
touring Beijings hostels on pickups before going to the wall via a gallery 
and some dodgy handicraft joint!

It was untouristed, especially the part that said no entry, which we 
ignored, which was spectacular. Really overgrown and wild but intact. The 
360 view was pretty special and we had a great clear day for it. The summer 
palaces (old and new), the forbidden city and Tiananmen Square were to be 
honest average. Beijings nightscene has to be desired too. One strip of 
bars/restaurants reminded me of Magaluf in Majorca the other slightly better 
but full of beggars. We did however, find a pub with a great secluded garden 
selling Belgian beer and wood fired pizzas (hoorah!). The Chinese beer is 
like water, but sometimes cheaper than water too, apart from Tsingtao which 
isn't too bad.

We departed Beijing on a night train in hard sleepers to Pingyao. The nights 
sleep on the train was awful, what with people chatting and the train 
checking if it's alright to go at junctions with other oncoming trains by 
just using the horn and of course the constant hawking up of spittle by the 
disgusting chinese individuals in the next set of beds. We arrived in 
Pingyao at  5.30 am to be meeted by our prebooked guesthouse staff and our 
taxi (well man with bicycle and double seat starpped to the back of it) to 
be transported through what looked like the set of a chinese second world 
war film. Streets very old and grey looking with absolutely no one about. 
Our knackered driver got his 5 yuan for the ride (30p) from the staff and we 
were shown to our room. The guesthouse was a very very old chinese building 
built in the ming dynasty with original courtyard, I half expected Chow Yun 
Fat to come kung fu style at me from around the corner (as in the much 
slated over here - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). The room was nice and the 
chinese lantern over our door and the oriental melody playing in the 
courtyard gave the place a real cool ambience. Anyway, after a load more 
sleep to get over the memorable journey and a rusty water shower we headed 
into town for a feed, a prospect in China we have come to not look forward 
too. We did however, get served good coffee and an ominous looking chinese 
omelette, which was bland but edible. We then walked the streets taking in 
the place which has gots itself on the Unesco World Heritage list. The Town 
has many alleys and is surrounded by a completely intact ancient city wall. 
It has a central town building, at a whopping 18 metres is its tallest, from 
which we admired the old rooftops across the houses. Apart from the stares 
like we were from outer space and the constant sound of someone bringing up 
and spitting a green substance on the floor all around was a very pleasant 
place. They did however have this annoying ticketing thing going on which 
pressured you into spending 10 quid on a ticket to enter the towns main 
attractions like walking on the wall and an old banking museum, we declined 
being it was a complete rip off (along with many others we spoke to) and 
enjoyed just the streetlife and architecture instead. Admittedly the 2nd day 
was a little dull and after being served the worst meal at lunchtime I've 
had since travelling we were ready to move on. Oh...interesting things on 
the menu too including turtle, dog and cat ears soup!

We had the joy of enduring another packed night train again this time to get 
us to Xi'an. Again as arranged we were collected from the station and taken 
after an hours wait for other people to our Hostel, advertised as the 
cheapest place in town..mmm. Anyway, it is very basic but cleanish and does 
actually have hot water some parts of the day! Xi'an is a typical Asian city 
but amongst the Department stores and Mcdonalds (And thank the lord for 
those) are some very nice and old buildings scattered around looking elegant 
compared to the other modern grey monolithic buildings piecing the smog. Our 
first day here was uneventful as we again were tired from the lack of sleep 
on the night train which this time did go o.k. for us. At beer o'clock we 
chatted for a long while reflecting on the last 9 months of laughs and 
scares over a Tsingtao and decided we'd book a trip for the next day (today) 
to go to a wildlife sanctuary 60km out of the city, and see a Giant Panda in 
its own province along with other endangered species. The flyer looked good 
and had the WWF logo on it so rather than seeing a Panda at the Zoo and 
handing our money to them we decided to put the money the way of someone 
taking more care of the animals..or so we thought. The actual reality of it 
was it was one of the worse things I've had to endure, The animals kept in 
extremely bad shape in the smallest enclosures I've ever seen. The brown 
bears were in a square cage with caged surface that they couldn't even turn 
in...I mean you'd be shocked to see an animal be transported in such a small 
enclosure. I couldn't believe it. I'll definitely be writing a letter to WWF 
on my return that is for sure. In actual fact the flyer at the hostel is a 
complete selling ploy, as I don't think WWF have anything to do with this 
but I'm hoping they soon will as the animals need rescuing from here before 
they are all dead! Even worse these animal are on the highest list for 
animals on the brink of extinction. These people really have no idea! Of 
course being a tour we had to also endure the obligatory excursion to a 
gallery on the way back. I actually have to admit to buying one of the 
paintings which I liked, and the old artist lady who has exhibited a lot of 
her work worldwide was very pleasant and there was no pushing to sell 
anything, which is good...I'm always put off by a hard sell for anything, be 
it good or not. Anyway, we got back and darted to Mcdonalds for a western 
fix before coming to this Net cafe. I'm still a little startled by what I 
have witnessed today and hope that tomorrow the rain stops and we can enjoy 
a trip to the Terracotta Warriors this time on our terms!

They do say you either love China or Loathe it. So far I'm swayed to 
loathing it but it has been an interesting experience, but one I don't wish 
to repeat for a long while! I must admit I should of planned it better and 
ended the trip in the Maldives or something...Oh well!

Still I'm looking forward to Frankfurt and sampling Apfelwein!

Take care and see most of you in a couple of weeks or so.
Damion
		

Hello Again,

2 days until we're back home so I thought i'd conclude our adventures with 
this last mail.

Since having the experience of China's animal care we decided the next day 
to go to see the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. The rain still pouring we 
got the local bus to the "best museum in the world" (why do they all have to 
claim that the museums are the best in the world?). It was very spectacular 
though. 3 large pits, 2 of which were only in part excavated and the main 
one 200 metres in length covered by a huge hanger. 3000 soldiers stood in 
formation all with individual faces and according to rank, different 
clothing and armour too. Horses and chariots in the middle and many other 
soldiers and horses on a higher level that had been excavated in bits and 
superglued together, a task that I'm sure was delightful! Some of them 
simply looked like smashed plant pots before repair. Amazing to see the 
lengths at which an emperor will go to see that his tomb is spiritually 
guarded. Great stuff.

Our last day in Xi'an and finally the sun put his hat on for us. We decided 
to check out what the city itself had to offer. We walked to the Small Goose 
Pagoda avoiding the apparently over touristed Big Goose Pagoda which stands 
at the same height roughly anyway and walked around the grounds and watched 
as two old ladies did their Tai Chi at the base of the temple in a nice 
setting. After this we walked back within the confines of the city wall and 
strolled around the Big Bell Tower and Drum Tower into the Muslim Quarter. 
Here there were lots of old chinese men with long beards and skull caps 
selling good old tourist souvenirs and the occasional old lady cutting up 
rams skulls for a broth. We visited the mosque which felt very strange being 
it was in China. It was actually very similar architecturally to that of a 
normal temple of worship except there were mats all laid out on the floor 
instead of seating. After we strolled around the markets haggling over a few 
Yuan for small souvenirs to take back before going back to the bed bug 
infested hostel. We checked out and went to board our overnight train back 
to Beijing. This time we'd booked the luxury express sleeper back which took 
only 11hrs rather than the 22hrs it took to get here. Luxury it was too. 4 
in a proper compartment with large comfortable beds and quilts and the 
luxury of English language films dsiplayed on your personal lcd monitor. It 
may have been 4 times the price but we are truly over the sound of chinese 
reaching for their last bits of phlegm to pave the floors with. We actually 
shared our cabin with a chinese couple in their 60's who were very pleasant 
who spoke broken Chinglish.

Back in Beijing we checked back into our previous hostel and chilled for a 
while before heading for an afternoon at the Temple of Heaven. It was a nice 
afternoon with loads of walking and impressive yet heavily touristed 
shrines, temples and ampitheatre. In the evening we headed back to Sunlitan 
for more pizza and Belgian beers at the Hidden Tree where we met a bunch of 
ex-pat Dutch with who we shared a heated disscussion with about Chinese 
culture and living in China.

Our last day in China was spent in the shopping district where all we came 
away with was a lucky cat for Emilys' mobile phone and the joy of Chinese 
KFC for lunch. We did however that evening discover a restaurant near to the 
hostel that served our first impressive Chinese food. We had the Peking Duck 
(a whole one and this time without the head and web soup accompaniment) and 
Sweet and Sour Pork with Special Fried Rice which was enough to feed at 
least 4 (over ordering in the Chinese Restaurant at home is usually a common 
mistake too). It was all very yummy and we walked away happy and full having 
had our first good tasting meal in 2 weeks.

The next day we flew to Frankfurt, Germany. The 10 hour flight was 
entertained by a pissed Polish guy making a mockery of the stewards and 
ranting at the Chinese and Germans for hours (in true Punter style). Feeling 
Jet lagged yet over joyed about being back in a democratic society with good 
food we headed out for a feast and a few drinks before collapsing in the 
hotel for hours. The following morning we strolled the streets of old 
Frankfurt which to our suprise was very beautiful. We both had pictured 
skyscrapers, banks and not much else. I had my haircut by a Russian whilst 
Em had her wax by a Croatian before heading back to the main square for 
Schnitzel and Apfelwein. We went back out in the evening for a second stint 
on the Apfelwein and Weissbier which was all good until the next morning! 
With a sore head we both boarded a train to Koblenz. We had decided ages ago 
we would visit my brother in Luxembourg before our return home and being we 
had to change trains in Koblenz, in true backpacker style decided to spend a 
couple of days and one night and check out Koblenz. Heavily bombarded in WW2 
Koblenz suprisingly has many beautiful buildings. It is where the Rhine and 
Mosel rivers meet and is really nice with a lot of the town built up on the 
steep river banks. After our usual walking tour of the city we crossed the 
Rhine to visit the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, where you can get great views 
over the rivers and town. Unfortunately half way up the skies opened up and 
absolutley drenched us. It was amusing getting the ski lift to the top in 
the torrential rain to get an obscured rainy view over the City. Nevermind, 
guess it's a good reminder of the random weather we get in Europe! After a 
night of this time sampling Germany's fine wine we hit a bar to conclude our 
day sampling Poland's fine Vodka! Yet again another sore head this time to 
venture out of the city. Sat high up on the riverbank of the Rhine is 
Schloss Stolzenfels, a huge medieval castle. We had the joy of a german 
guided tour (none of which I could understand) around the castle following 
our English paper handout (spot the English tourists amongst the Germans). 
It was a lovely castle which fantastic elegant courtyard gardens and great 
views on a lovely day.

The afternoon we got our train for Luxembourg along the Rhine where the 
scenery changed from steep hills to a more undulating landscape as we 
reached Luxembourg. My brother and his wife met us at the station and took 
us back to their home in Bascharage, a small village outside Luxembourg 
city. The afternoon was spent catching up and the evening consisted of yet 
another night on the town in the city. Yes more Weissbier...ohhh dear!

The next day after a mini lay in Emily and I, with Mark (my brother) and 
Hannah (niece) headed through Belgium and into France for the city of 
Verdun. Mark had wanted to visit here for a while and thought it would be 
good to take us there. Verdun is steeped in history from world war 1 with 
many fortresses and embattlements that form part of the maginot line. We 
first visited the city itself and had a coffee overlooking the river Meuse 
then went to the park for good french bagettes and cakes. After lunch we 
went first to Douaumont Fort. We explored the cold and wet confines of the 
fort which were pretty haunting really considering the amount of people that 
have died here and the hell hole they were defending that was built to house 
800 people not the 3000 that were inside it. Apparently the smell of the 
loos alone kept the soldiers feeling constantly nauseous. All very 
interesting and shocking to see the grounds all around heavily cratered by 
constant bombardments. After we went to the Ossuary of Douaumont containing 
the remains of 130 000 unknown soldiers and national cemetary where 15 000 
French soldiers lie buried. We then went to the Tranchee des Baionnettes 
where soldiers bayonets penetrate the soil still from where a landslide 
buried them all alive in the trench to the glory of the 137th Infantry 
Regiment and other trenches unburied. An interesting day intermittently 
interupted with heavy downpours and getting lost on the way home in rain so 
hard that my brother was finding that it was difficult to navigate (and not 
just when it was raining)! The evening we headed out in the rain to my 
brother's friend's house for a BBQ. It did eventually stop raining and we 
conversed into the early hours eating lots of meat and drinking french red 
wine. Good stuff.

Thank the lord for Sunday. I'm doing absolutely nothing today apart from 
maybe letting Mark's Husky take me for a walk, apparently he hasn't bought a 
sled for him yet! We have one more day left tommorow where we shall stroll 
the streets of Luxembourg before heading back to Frankfurt for our flight 
back home.

I hope you are all well and enjoyed my final last major epic! See most of 
you in the week!

Take it easy
Damion
		

Hi All, had to get this last one in to finish off the novel...

The final flight back from Frankfurt, and unfortunately with the most boring 
airline in the World, we were back in Blighty. A big welcome home at 
Heathrow by Emily's family complete with England flag with "Welcome home 
Emily and Damion," written across it. A smooth journey around the M25 and we 
were home. We lifted our backpacks for the last time and dumped them on the 
bedroom floor, where they remained unpacked until yesterday. We made it back 
for Emily's birthday on the 16th June and we were keen to meet up with 
everyone to say hi. Still feeling a little shell shocked and having the 
constant urge to visit Tourist Information to find out about a walking tour 
around the town or to catch a bus to the next town we are gradually settling 
in and are already sharing our stories and some photos.

One thing we have found amusing upon return is the fact that everyone when 
they see us say "you haven't changed" in a surprised tone. Dreadlocks were 
never my thing but I feel in the last 10 months I have lived another 
lifetime. It has certainly improved my history and geography but it's not 
all about seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes. It also, obviously 
has severely dented the bank account but as my brother put it after I told 
him the total cost for the 2 of us was 25K was "well it was a great binge!", 
and that it was!

But some of the main things I have learnt on this adventure are:

1) To get fitter before climbing an Andean mountain;
2) Llamas make better jumpers than they do steaks;
3) You can swim in Piranha infested water without being eaten;
4) Jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane and off a structurally sound 
bridge is actually great fun;
5) The wildlife in Australia is never to be trusted;
6) There is no such thing as a light shower on a Pacific Island;
7) Thai cuisine is great but the price is better;
8) There is a symptom known as temple fatigue;
9) Don't believe that it tastes good if they tell you it does;
10) Animals and Asia don't mix if there is any human involvement;
11) Eating a steak with chopsticks is an impossible task.

"Each journey is a person itself, no two are the same".

The World is a fantastic place, it is clear that mankind is quickly chipping 
away at its beauty but it's also the people themselves that have made the 
trip. Whether they are locals or other travellers, you meet so many 
different walks of life and travel with such good people it's no wonder why 
people get itchy feet!

For those of you wondering - as everyone asks me this question first: Where 
is the best place then?

Well, there are obvious highlights to each country, which is why we planned 
to go to them. Our overall favourite has to go down as New Zealand - The 
reasons; The friends we travelled with made me laugh almost constantly, the 
kiwis are really friendly people, everyday you are faced with the most 
awesome and different scenery and you get to abuse your adrenal glands by 
doing really stupid things!

Other major highlights included:

The view from Corcovado - Over looking the city of Rio de Janeiro;
The Foz do Iguacu Waterfalls - Argentina/Brazil;
The backwaters of the Amazon River - Brazil & Peru;
The Nazca Lines and the Inca Trail - Peru;
The beaches and SCUBA diving in Rarotonga - Cook Islands;
Christmas in New Year in Sydney;
The freedom of touring the East Coast of Australia in our own vehicle;
Koh Pha Ngan's beaches in Thailand and the great food everyday;
Angkor Temples and the history of Cambodia;
Luang Prabang, celebrating the Laos New Year;
Hong Kong City - My second favourite city to Sydney;
The cultures and traditions of Japan & the beautiful Mount Fuji;
The Great Wall and the Army of the Terracotta Warriors in China.the list 
goes on..

Good timing though getting home in time for the footie and of course summer, 
except I'm wearing a jacket daily, must be something to do with the Tennis 
at Wimbledon starting out. I forgot how unreliable the weather was! Anyway, 
I have to snap myself back into reality and get on my feet again.

It's been emotional.

Cheers
Damion

P.S. I will get around to sending some personal replies this week, I've been 
a bit slack but as I have a week off before going back to the office etc. 
I'll be in touch.