A list of new posts.....

I promised I was going to catch up with the blog andf as it´s so out of date I have to do some posts for June and July. As I add posts they will pop up in the list below....

Catch up time! (Aug)
Going solo...... (June)
Hola Maria (June)

On the Inca trail, just. (July) *** NEW
Early onset.... something (June) *** NEW

Catch up time!

HPIM2032
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

In this last few weeks I`ve let this blog slip. Partly because I`ve been rushing around with the journey nearing it`s end and partly because I am sure to have pleanty of computer time when I get back ie CV´s and the like.

It´s strange though, with only 2 weeks left all I want to do is sit on my back side and relax a bit. For the last 6 weeks I´ve been on about 5 night buses including two 20 hour ones visited 4 countries and about to hit my 5th in South America. I´ve hiked, cycled, ridden horses and even flown a couple of times. Time now to get some beach time in Brazil and get a tan to make all of you in the UK jealous! I´m knackered!

I´m currently in Bolivia getting ready to fly back down to Argentina on Monday before heading off on some night buses to Brazil to meet my friend Frances via the Iquazu falls.
Bolivia is a beautiful country and probably my favourite in South America so far. My Spanish is improving, I´ve met some great people and I am sure to come back again one day with my camera. For now it´s a small taster for the future.

Though I have such a short time left I´m really enjoying just chilling out in markets, cafes and resturants. I did a Cathedral tour the other day and the only thing which stopped me running out after 1.5 hours was the fact that the guide was locking every door behind her - I reckon she must have lost a few in the past and was on her guard.
Time to unwind, avoid big buses and get all refreshed for the trip home and all that follows.

So here I am with an hour spare before the airport so I will see if I can post a couple of things. I will start a new post and add some links to any new stuff I put in!

Nearing the end.....

Blimey it´s been 232 days since I left on my wee jolly around the world and it´s nearly over! I´m literally sitting planning my last 3 weeks and making sure I make it all the way through to Rio to fly home on the 17th! The bloody 17th!!!

What a trip!

Someone asked ´Have I found myself?´ . Not sure I was ever looking!! I do know however that..... I´ve found myself stranded up a 130 foot tree, staring out a wild bull elephant, found myself not more than 2 foot from a toilet for a week, found myself eating an ant´s egg omelet, found myself jumping out of a plane, found myself in snow capped mountains, found myself passed out on a Thailand beach, and finally found myself a lot more chilled out and with a tonne of new friends. Which is nice!

So there we have it, the final few weeks! It puts me in a strange mood thinking about it! On one side I´m scared about returning to all the bills and slipping back into old habits. I´m also in a bit of a sad place with my dream of a south American photography portfolio dashed due to ´technical problems´ but at the same time feeling it´s something I can cope with. After all, I´ve re-awakened my passion and I know it wont fade away when I get back but rather grow into something more fun. There´ll be other opportunities in the future - it´s a big world! Oh and I also have about 3000 other shot which I´ll make sure are ready for the slide shows on my return.

But all that aside, I´m REALLY looking forward to coming home and thoughts of extending my trip are causing some serious deliberations.

Firstly I need to make some money ( let me know if anyone needs a barman, chef, glass washer, photographer, project manager, doorman or pimp). Secondly I cant wait to catch up with friends and family. It´s funny, the minute I left Cardiff I realised how much I was leaving behind and since then I´ve been really looking forward to bumping into you all again soon. Also this strange thing called facebook.com has exploded in my travelling face. Who would of thought I could actually find something which made it easy for my lazy arse to stay in contact with people! And with so many people popping out of the wood work I´m really looking forward to catching up with old friends who I haven´t seen for ages.

So there we go, enough for now. I´ll spare you the details of my voyage and leave that for my blog except for saying I´ve just been through Chile, Peru, Argentina and now a bit of Bolivia before heading to Brazil in a week or two. Tho blog is horribly out of date but give me a day or two and check back (it´s just that I don't want to be stuck in front of a computer in my last months!)

As for the photos! Don't ask! http://www.flickr.com/photos/ade_taylor

Catch you all soon and dont forget to get the Strongbow in the fridge.


Ade

PS... Lessons from this trip...

- Never eat a melted ice cream from Machupicchu
- Who the hell needs more than 3 pairs of pants and socks
- A 23 hour bus trip can be done, but strong over the counter medicines help!
- Donkey poo smells way worse than a llama´s

Flamingo, Atecama Salt Flats

Flamingo, Atecama Salt Flats
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

Smack bang in the middle of Chile are the Atecama Salt Flats. All those years ago when the Andes decided to pop up they ended up reclaiming some of the sea and when the water evaporated it left behind a tonne of salt.... in a kind of flat way. So when you look out across this 400km sq salty desert all you see are lumpy bits of salt... and some ponds.

Interesting fact is that in these ponds very little can live as it´s so salty. So pretty much all that exists are some specialist plankton and some brine shrimps... which are eaten by flamingos. And it is these shrimps and the keratine in their shells which makes the birds pink. The older the bird, the more shrimp dinners and therefore the pinker it becomes. In fact zoos supplement their birds diets to make them pinker

.... I wonder if you could make a blue flamingo?

Chile was....chilly

Alright Geyser, Chile
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

After heading over to South America to catch up with Maria we managed to squeeze in a fair few sights and as many night buses before heading to Peru for some cheaper action.

Chile was basically a mad dash north but we stopped at San Pedro de Atecama to check out some Geysers and some pretty spectacular salt flats. Most of the west of South America is volcanic and San Pedro was no exception, sitting next to the Andes it is surrounded by volcanoes with the last eruption being only a few years ago. In the top picture here you can see the Geysers we visited. We had to get up at 4am to get to the site whilst it was still cold as this is when the steam is most obvious because of the temperature difference. It was bloody freezing up there until the sun came up which is why I am still confused as to why we then jumped in a hot spring.... a good idea until we had to get back out of it!

Been a while...

Ok, sorry this has been a while... again!!!

I´m now in Peru having travelled through New Zealand and then Chile. I´ve discovered I have a problem with my camera which means it doesn´t focus properly - quite an important feature!
Anyway all my pics from NZ, Chile and Peru to date are shite!!! Grrr!

Trying to sort that out then I might get on the case with this again!

Anyway in summary......

New Zealand -
Caught up with Carlos and Sharon in Auckland
Flew to South Island
Drove 3000km back up to the North Island stopping for some glaciers and a skydive on the way.

Chile
Met Maria
Lost some bus tickets
Fund them
Saved a llama
Hopped on several night buses to Peru stopping to see some geysers, and some desert on the way

Peru
Altitude sickness
Spanish school
Inti Raymi sun god festival
Inca Trail
Machupichu
Broken Camera

ciao for now

Ade

On the Inca trail, just.

Peru is quite an amazing place what with its mountains, beaches, deserts and jungles around each corner. Maria and I tried our hardest to see as much of possible and nearly died of exhaustion doing it.

I guess on of Peru's greatest treats is Machupicchu, one of the 'modern' wonders of the world. Home of the Incan nobles some 400 years ago the 'lost city' perches eerily on the top of a mountain in central Peru. It is here that the famous Inca trail terminates and here where millions of tourists flock each year - including us!

Having arrived in Cusco to witness the Inti Raymi festival and the sacrificing of a llama to the sun god I hung around for a week of Spanish lessons and we booked onto one of the Machupichu tours. Ideally we would have loved to have done the famous 'Inca Trail' tour but sadly numbers are limited and the tour is booked up about 7 months in advance i.e. there was no chance of us getting on it. There are, as always, a number of other options for the tour operators to charge you for and we opted for the 'Jungle Trail', a 4 day, 3 night adventure.

Day one was a 5 hour mountain bike ride down a mountain. Well if I'm completely honest it was actually down a road on the mountain but as they hadn't finished building the road then I'm going to file it away as a death defying downhill adventure, or something like that. By the time we'd reached the bottom of the oh so steep mountain we were ready for our ice cold shower and our beds.

Oh I nearly forgot, Action Man who I have been carrying around and taking photos of since the start of the trip met a new friend in the form of a cheap Peruvian Barbie doll.

Day two was a nice leisurely stroll through some bloody big mountains. We passed through a deserted town and were lucky enough to be doing the trek during the time of year where fruit was plentiful. It was a lovely hike as all around us were oranges, pineapples and avocados growing everywhere and within easy reach. Before we knew it the fruit was doing a good job of distracting us from the arduous climb we had just started. Well almost.

We were climbing up towards the Inca trail which would take us up to about 2,500m. As we reached the trail we realised how amazing it would have been to do the full trail. Cut into the side of the mountain (a long way up) was the path, all 3 foot of it! It snaked around and rose and fell with quite a scary pitch at times and for some of us it was a little too much. One girl was not quite expecting the path to be so narrow and high and had some big problems getting down it was OK because with her boyfriend on one side and me acting the prat on the other we managed to distract her long enough to get to the next bit. Oh and as you may recall in a previous post I don't like heights either - it's amazing how a distraction helps!

Oh and it was officially my birthday so a few drinks were had and a very naughty action man got caught with his trousers down!


Day 3. More fruit, hot springs and a jump in a river. Oh and a very long walk along a railway track.... with trains on. At times it was a little like the film Stand by Me.

Day 4, and an early start. 5am and we were already walking up the biggest staircase in the world to get up to Machupichu before sunrise. We arrive at the top, get met by our highly annoying new guide and await the sunrise.

'Where is the best place to see it' we asked. He took us to some random part of the city which was strangely away from where everyone else was going at that time in the morning! He then forgot about the sunrise and it was only when I said 'so that must be the sun over there then' he remembered we had all asked him to let us get prepared with our cameras! I realised it was not the best place for the sunrise and stirred up a mutiny within our group.

Before he knew it his group had halved and we had raced off to the other end of the ruins for some better shots. It was a fantastic place with some fantastic views. If anyone gets the chance to go to Peru then book ahead and get on the real Inca Trail, it would be fantastic . Fantastic! Oh and get there early for the sunrise, it's worth it and there are less tourists.

Oh and action man got into trouble with one of the guards for pulling a moonie with Machupicchu in the background.

It was worth it though... we got the picture!

mmmm Scrub that last thought..

Ok, so sometimes I write some stuff on here and then ponder on it and change my mind. ie spur of the moment thoughts which then get further sorted out in my head.

Take the last post for example. I was talking about how nice it is to meet people without history affecting your judgements. True, it´s nice to start fresh with people but then I was again thinking how shallow it can be. People have their bad days and good days and I guess we can all come across as completely different people from one day until the next. It´s only when you know someone for a long period of time do you really get to appreciate someone for the person they are and then you make your judgements. For this reason I´m really looking forward to catching up with everyone back at home, gossiping, laughing and sharing some of the past that we have together..

Going solo......

Action Man meets Max Steel
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

Ok I may as well digress here a little.... to travel alone or travel with a friend? I´ve done a little of both and and like both!

On your own, you can be whoever you want. More importantly you can 100% be yourself at that point in time without anyone knowing anything about your past. You can be safe in the knowledge that whoever you meet is judging you on who you are at that instant in time and not who you´ve been, what you´ve done or what you´ve said in the past.

We humans are a stubborn bunch and we rarely forget things, for that reason our opinions are normally a culmination of our past interactions with that person. We all know it, if someone stuffs up and says the wrong thing we can remember that moment for 100 years and it sits there forming part of our opinions of that person. It´s easier to forget the good things about a person than the bad things! Can you remember your best takeway in the last month, or just the worst?

So what´s the point? Well I guess people are different people in different situations. Put someone under stress at work and they become a very different person to someone sitting on the beach or at home with friends. Meeting someone whilst travelling away from their stresses means you meet the real person and not someone as a result of external pressures. Realising this is no new thing for me. But being able to see it so clearly in myself is a kick up the arse to maintain a good balance in life.
Stress is a part of our lives but the the question is why do so many of us put ourselves in a situation where we have so much that we become someone we´re not!

So that´s traveling on your own. You can tell someone you´re a photographer, a fireman, a politician and become someone new, or you can just fuzz past those questions and become whoever you are in that moment. I did a lot of fuzzing because as soon as you tell someone you´re an IT project manager then .....zzZZZZZZ!

And then travelling with a friend. Someone to look after your bags whilst you look for a room, someone to sit next to on long bus journeys, someone to play cards with on a cold night, a table for two! It´s lovely being able to share in-jokes with someone and talk about life back in the ´real world´. When travelling alone you have to ask and answer the same questions ever time you meet someone new - Where you from? Where have you been? Have you been to....?? etc etc In other words traveller small talk. Travelling with a friend shields you from that for a while.... at least until you meet the next new person.

Right, which do I prefer? Neither. There is a time and a place for both. Do I wish I had a travel partner for Asia?.... 100% no! I met some great people and probably wouldn´t have had the same experiences with someone from home - After all, who do I know who would sit in a bloody monastery for 2 weeks! Do I wish I travelled South America on my own... again no! Meeting Maria was a great part of the trip and it means we both have something to talk about when in different cities back at home.

Early onset.... something

Ever thought you were going a little mad? I had my doubts!
When you realise you're misplacing stuff it worries you, especially when you know all of your worldly goods are being carried around in one big dusty bag. How the hell can you lose something in 2 cubic feet of pants and teeshirts? Well I manage this quite regularly but now realise it's nothing to worry about, it's only happened when stupidly tired or hungover... the former being quite a usual state for me to be in during south America. But I was worried for a bit...

First was my hat in Thailand, a bitter pill to swallow but one which I got over when I bought my next one (until I noticed even that was not in my bag last week!). Then came a shirt, tee-shirt and towel left drying outside of a dorm one hungover morning, again nothing crazy but annoying just the same.

Well I stepped it up a gear when travelling in Chile with Maria. We'd just finished a 18 hour bus trip and decided to book a tour and then our next bus ticket out of the place for 3 days time. It was a standing joke that we kept misplacing tickets etc and Maria decided to leave them in my capable hands! Well 2 days later when Maria asked 'so you still have the tickets, right?' I promptly put her mind at rest even after realising they were not in my wallet.... they were in my money belt in my rucksack, I was sure of it! That was soon to disolve as soon as I returned to the money belt and noticed a lack of tickets...bugger! At $30's a piece they were not a cheap ticket to go and lose!


"Er, Maria, I dont want to panic you but you have the tickets right?"."No" was the swift answer and I began the old panicing myself. I searched high and low for those tickets but to no avail they were just not in my bag, wallet or anywhere else on my person... they had vanished!
With my tail between my legs much like a thai lady boy, we walked to the bus station praying for a miracle! It didnt come. We couldn't remember the seat numbers and the lady behind the counter hadn't taken our names on purchase of the tickets so we were scuppered. Normally I would have coughed up the money and payed for the next night if it wasn't for the fact we were rushing to the next town to catch a famous Inca sun god festival, the Inti Raymi. We begged, well Maria begged for a solution and the only option was to return at 9pm that night when our bus was due to leave and if there were 2 spare seats (of course there will be they're ours!) we could buy some more tickets. So with it not looking too hopeful we headed home, with Maria rightfully speaking very little to me!

Anyway Maria chilled in a bar whilst I threw my belongings around the hostel in search of the tickets. I even went through the bins but still no luck! So there was nothing for it but to head off once more to the bus station and hope for the best. Though I was ready to shell out the cash I was still hoping for a miracle, after all I had done my good dead for the day and helped stop a llama injure itself in a rather shady petting zoo. I'm a beleiver in Karma and I was hoping that I had enough stored up for even a small amount of it to whizz it's way back to me in the form of some good luck.

Once again to the bus station and things looked sketchy as the bus was fully loaded and we were still standing at the side lines. When we begged for charity from the conductor we were getting nowhere. He stopped us short when the police pulled up and told us to wait for 2 minutes. When he returned he thrust 2 tickets into our hands and asked us to get on, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth we shut up and bolted to our seats where we sat like little angels waiting for some sort of explaination. It came in the form of the conductor who explained that 3 days
ago we had left the tickets in the resturant and that when we hadn't come back for them they handed them into the police who amazingly came to the bus station to see if we arrived.

Now this does not normally happen in this world and I was suprised to see it happen in such a touristy place as San Pedro. The cafe could have just binned the tickets or the police could have had another cup of tea and not bothered showing up, but for some reason luck was on our side and these guys did the right thing! Good on them!


So there I am, shooting off on another tangent in my blog! The moral of the story kids is to help out a llama in distress and the world will be a better place.

Now, if only I could find some more distressed llamas I might be able to find my penknife, my fleece (which I left on a bus, one glove and 2 hats! Here llama, llama, llama.......

Early onset.... something

Ever thought you were going a little mad? I had my doubts!

When you realise you're misplacing stuff it worries you, especially when you know all of your worldly goods are being carried around in one big dusty bag. How the hell can you lose something in 2 cubic feet of pants and teeshirts? Well I manage this quite regularly but now realise it's nothing to worry about, it's only happened when stupidly tired or hungover... the former being quite a usual state for me to be in during south America. But I was worried for a bit...
First was my hat in Thailand, a bitter pill to swallow but one which I got over when I bought my next one (until I noticed even that was not in my bag last week!). Then came a shirt, tee-shirt and towel left drying outside of a dorm one hungover morning, again nothing crazy but annoying just the same.

Well I stepped it up a gear when traveling in Chile with Maria. We'd just finished a 18 hour bus trip and decided to book a tour and then our next bus ticket out of the place for 3 days time. It was a standing joke that we kept misplacing tickets etc and Maria decided to leave them in my capable hands! Well 2 days later when Maria asked 'so you still have the tickets, right?' I promptly put her mind at rest even after realising they were not in my wallet.... they were in my money belt in my rucksack, I was sure of it! That was soon to dissolve as soon as I returned to the money belt and noticed a lack of tickets...bugger! At $30's a piece they were not a cheap ticket to go and lose!
"Er, Maria, I don’t want to panic you but you have the tickets right?".
"No" was the swift answer and I began the old panicking myself. I searched high and low for those tickets but to no avail they were just not in my bag, wallet or anywhere else on my person... they had vanished!
With my tail between my legs much like a Thai lady boy, we walked to the bus station praying for a miracle! It didn’t come. We couldn't remember the seat numbers and the lady behind the counter hadn't taken our names on purchase of the tickets so we were scuppered. Normally I would have coughed up the money and paid for the next night if it wasn't for the fact we were rushing to the next town to catch a famous Inca sun god festival, the Inti Raymi. We begged, well Maria begged for a solution and the only option was to return at 9pm that night when our bus was due to leave and if there were 2 spare seats (of course there will be they're ours!) we could buy some more tickets. So with it not looking too hopeful we headed home, with Maria rightfully speaking very little to me!
Anyway Maria chilled in a bar whilst I threw my belongings around the hostel in search of the tickets. I even went through the bins but still no luck! So there was nothing for it but to head off once more to the bus station and hope for the best.
Though I was ready to shell out the cash I was still hoping for a miracle, after all I had done my good dead for the day and helped stop a llama injure itself in a rather shady petting zoo. I'm a believer in Karma and I was hoping that I had enough stored up for even a small amount of it to whiz it's way back to me in the form of some good luck.
Once again to the bus station and things looked sketchy as the bus was fully loaded and we were still standing at the side lines. When we begged for charity from the conductor we were getting nowhere. He stopped us short when the police pulled up and told us to wait for 2 minutes. When he returned he thrust 2 tickets into our hands and asked us to get on, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth we shut up and bolted to our seats where we sat like little angels waiting for some sort of explanation. It came in the form of the conductor who explained that 3 days ago we had left the tickets in the restaurant and that when we hadn't come back for them they handed them into the police who amazingly came to the bus station to see if we arrived.
Now this does not normally happen in this world and I was surprised to see it happen in such a touristy place as San Pedro. The cafe could have just binned the tickets or the police could have had another cup of tea and not bothered showing up, but for some reason luck was on our side and these guys did the right thing! Good on them!
So there I am, shooting off on another tangent in my bog! The moral of the story kids is to help out a llama in distress and the world will be a better place.

Now, if only I could find some more distressed llamas I might be able to find my penknife, my fleece (which I left on a bus, one glove and 2 hats! Here llama, llama, llama.......

Hola Maria

Hot Springs
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

As you know from past posts I shuffled my trip around to meet Maria, a friend from Cardiff, in Chile.

I only just managed to get to Santiago, Chile having messed up my dates from New Zealand missing my flight by a day. It was only by the grace of the gods and by flirting with a 60 yr old Kiwi woman did I manage to get on the next flight.

So there I was, Chile. I was peeing it down and I was soon to realise that a little more attention to the Spanish books may have paid off. I never spoke any Asian languages but it seemed that in Asia the waving of my hands was more easily understood. Still, I made it to the first hostel which was fun as it didn't have a sign outside and I hadn´t noted down the number of the street it was on!

I was in South America and it felt unusually exciting to be out of my depth again after Oz and NZ.

Next was my trip up to see Maria. She was a star and actually had arranged to meet me much further south than originally planned. I had a minor detour on the way but finally met her in La Serana in Chile before we headed up to see some geysers and deserts.

It was really nice seeing a familiar face after so long. Traveling on your own has its ups and downs and it´s nice to be able to catch up on stories from home and chew the fat with someone you don't have to ask the standard backpacker questions to.

I travelled with Maria for about a month and during that time saw some of the most fantastic scenery to date and had some of the biggest laughs of the trip so far. It was great to have a travel partner.

Thanks for the trip mate, see you back in the grey.

Guess what I did.....

Guess what I did.....
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade

I went to New Zealand for 10 days! Flew down one end, drove to the other. 2,800km in 6 days killed me - good job I walked on a glacier and jumped out of a plane in the mean time to keep me awake!

More to come when the jet lag clears!

I suffered from wind....

... and too much cloud cover so I couldn't jump out of the plane yesterday! Oh well, another time.

I've hired a car with a pig farmer and we're heading up the west coast of NZ in a milk float to melt some glaciers.

Catch you all soon


PS. Will be jumping in the north island next week with any luck

Going loco down in...

..South America soon and good news.

A really top friend of mine from Cardiff, Maria, has been travelling in South America since Feb this year. Since she was due to come home mid June then our paths wouldn't cross. This was a shame since she was one of the main people who inspired me to give up the job and head off. Well good new this last week or two -  it's turned out she's got the travel bug and has managed to extend her trip for a few months. We're now working on getting our routes to cross so we can travel around for a bit. I'll keep you posted.


Adios

(that was from page 4 of the spanish book I've been trying to read this last 6 months. Mmmm it's not going so well, I've made it to page 15 and I haven't even worked out how to ask for a beer yet!)

Oh bugger!

I'm a 6'8" dude who's afraid of heights; it's bitter irony.

Then tell me why the hell have I agreed to jump out of a plane in Queenstown New Zealand tomorrow!?

Bugger!

No gold star this week, Grade F

Excuse the quality of the last few posts, all inspiration seems to be slowly oozing from my pores. I'm going to jump out of plane tomorrow in the South of New Zealand so hopefully that'll kick start me into writing some new posts - like the one about the redneck camp I visited in the north of Brisbane or crab racing in Sydney!

'All Blacks' and Blue!

Well my arrival in New Zealand meant I could catch up with Sharon, a friend of Lorna's I knew from Cardiff and Carl who I went to University with. It was nice to have a few drinks in Auckland and have a bit of a break before heading off to Queenstown for some Adrenaline.

What was also nice was watching New Zealand beat France in their first test.

What was not so nice was watching Wales taking an absolute trouncing against Oz. Ouch, that hurt! The only softner was that the Kiwi's support the Oz team in the same way the welsh support the English team! I like these Kiwi's!

Goon-ers!

I never thought I'd suffer a culture shock in Australia but the 'traveller' scene's left me wanting to flee the country as soon as possible (ish).

It's a whole different ball game compared to my 5 months round Asia and to be honest it's not one which I came travelling to experience. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Australia or the Australians, I think the country and people are gorgeous but a large percentage who've been visiting it need a good kick up the arse and a poke in the eye with a pointy stick. For god's sake you're not at home, this is not just a long pub crawl; don't waste your chance to explore the world by spending every night drinking cheap shit wine. You lovingly name it 'goon' and then complain you haven't the money to explore the country properly. You spend all your money on beer then get a crap job for 2 months in the same place just to buy more goon. You only move on every few months because you stay in $30 hostels, eating $10 meals where that same $40 would last you 5 days in Laos and you would have your eyes opened to so much more.

You sit in a dirty hostel kitchen surrounded by condescending signs telling you 'your mother's not here to wash up after you...' and the 'kitchen fairy doesn't call here any more' and then nick your neighbour's milk because you cant be arsed to walk 2 minutes to the nearest shop. Does this not tell you that you need to get out of that place and wake yourselves up? When you get shouted at late at night in the street for being 'f*cking noisy backpacker scum' that perhaps your not actually experiencing a culture but instead alienating it? This may seem like a way to extend university life but for the rich kids and mummies boys out there come on, this is not the 'University of Life' you collectively convince yourself it is. If you want to piss your money up the wall do what I did, do it in the UK for as long as you can and then when you're ready for something new get off and do something more interesting, you'll never regret it.

Now don't get me wrong, I've spent a dozen nights in hostels and several of them pissed out of my head but where's that gotten me? I've spent far too much money and haven't seen as much as I could have done. Any longer and I'd end up getting a crap job to save up for my next bus ticket! Nah, I'm taking what I have and getting off to South America as soon as I can.

Finally I know this is a bit of an Ade rant but I have to repeat I've loved my time in Australia and when I've had the best times it's been with Australians and not backpackers. I'm having a pop at East coast backpackers and I know this is a cheeky generalisation to make but the stars I've met have not shone in the numbers they have in the last few months and that's for sure. Perhaps if I was travelling up the coast in a van, taking my time as so many do then I would meet loads of interesting souls. Perhaps is a word being used a little late here as I'm actually writing this from New Zealand!

Perhaps next time I come I'll just stick with the Australians; it is after all their country that I came to visit.

Name that tune in....

For over 2 weeks now my Ipod has ben staring back at me with a blank screen, getting no further than showing a mocking apple logo on the screen every now and again. I was about to pack it away last night for its long winter sleep when, on dropping it on the floor from 3 inches it sprang to life. I ran up to the charger and bingo, this morning it's fully charged!

Bring it on, I have some tunes again!

Sydney by night

Well I’ve arrived in Sydney ad have met up with Craig who I used to work with in Edinburgh 8 years ago. He‘s still a bloody animal and we had an excellent day on the sauce catching up.

What’s even better is he’s currently managing a backpacker hostel which is an ideal job for the dude and a nice place for me to crash for a few days.
I have a feeling there may be some more stories coming out of this week though I’m not sure how many will be able to go in here!!

Surf’s up

I tried surfing in Byron Bay and Surfer‘s Paradise, it was loads of fun but bloody hell I’m too old for this shit! Maybe those Swedes were right after all!

Skydiving in New Zealand next… I’ll show ‘em!

Sheep, sheep, sheep

Try saying ‘sheep sheep’ without showing your teeth, that's all. That's just one of the bizarre drinking games which surfaced when camping on Fraser Island but it led to us gumming ‘sheep sheep’ to random strangers for the next few days.

I turned up in Hervey Bay and before I knew it I’d signed up for a self drive tour over on the island starting at 6am the next morning. Fraser Island’s a few hours north of Brisbane and is a popular destination because of its ridiculously long beeches, fresh water lakes and the fact you can only get around in 4x4 jeeps.

Well I wanted to go camping and this was ideal. We were given the truck, the camping gear and pointed in the right direction to find the food and beers.
A short ferry ride later and we were bouncing along sand dunes and soaking up the views. In the evenings we BBQ’d on the beech and drank under the stars before falling into the tents for the next day of throwing ourselves down giant sandbanks into crystal clear lakes.

Traveling on my own I was really lucky with the group I found myself in. There were 10 of us including a bunch of English lads, a German couple and a pair of Swedish girls. It turned out I was the oldest which caused a bit of amusement considering I was acting like a bloody 18 yr old bouncing in the sand and water. What didn't amuse me too much was when the 22 yr old Swedish girls promptly told that I was a bit too old for them! Too old! For what? Grrrrr!

A kangaroo’s stolen my bloody memory Bruce

Well it’s been 3 weeks in Oz and despite having this bloody laptop I still haven’t managed to keep on top of this blog! Well who cares, I was doing some catching up of my own and it’s been fun.

I’ve been visiting my cousins who emigrated to Brisbane with my uncle around 20 years ago, which was also around the last time I spoke to them!

Someone asked me if it would be weird staying with these guys as they would be like total strangers and up until that point I hadn’t really thought of it like that. I frantically tried to recall all of the snippets of information my mum had told me about them over the years. 2 Cousins, Chris and Matt, I remembered that! There were some children thrown in the mix and a marriage or two somewhere down the line…. Much more than that and I struggled!

When I got picked up from the airport by Chris, the older cousin, he told me how the kitchen was stocked up with Strongbow and Cheese and I knew everything was going to be just fine. Over the days we stuffed our faces, listened to tunes and reminisced about our childhood. I had a great time staying with Chris, Kirsty and their brand spanking new baby boy Joshua and I was so happy we got on so well.
It turned out that we all had a similar sense of humour and had many shared interests and attitudes - I wonder how much of our behaviour is genetic?

One thing that’s clear is that blood is thicker than water and I’m going to make more of an effort to keep in touch from now on.

Chris, Matt, Kirsty and Amanda thanks so much for the hospitality, you’re all really lovely people and I’m so glad I got over to see you. I know Hugh must have been so proud of you guys and I’m only sorry this trip didn’t happen earlier.

Until the next time we meet!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

My Ipod won't charge any more.... does this mean the next few months without tunes!!!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

A Myspace moment….

Bribane by night - from Kangaroo Point
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Top 5 things I’ll miss about SE Asia

• Thai Curry
• Asian hospitality
• Beer Lao (the only larger I can say I like!)
• ‘Lao Time’ - ie buses, office hours, food service etc - it will happen when it happens, just relax.
• Tight jeans on Asian bums! - Sorry but I’m an arse man!

5 things I wont miss

• Sweating 5 pints of water a day!
• Mosquitoes the size of small horses
• The only ‘cheese’ was laughing cow!
• Having ‘Tuk-Tuk’ or ‘moto’ being shouted at you wherever you go, whatever the time.
• Overweight westerners in thongs with girls half their age

Bye bye Asia.. My time here is done.

Asleep at the wheel - Oz
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

5 months in South East Asia and I move on with mixed feelings. I’ve been to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysian Borneo and I’ve only just managed to scratch the surface of these places.

Dashing around can be a little frustrating if you let it, you can think you’re missing out on stuff if you’re not rushing from one sight to another but in actual fact when you dash you don’t actually get below the surface of any one place. I think over the 5 months I got a reasonable mix of dashing and relaxing in a place.

Here is a bit of a recap (more for myself than for the blog) of the things that have stuck out in my mind over the last few months.

Thailand:

• A month vegging on beaches
• Koh Tao for Xmas
• A 10 day Buddhist meditation retreat for New Years
• Being bought down to earth in the refugee filled border town of Mae Sot, Thailand
• Couch surfing in Chiang Mai

Laos:

• Hunting for charities
• A bike tour in the northern hills - well I was on a bike, Louis was on a moped!
• A weekend in Pakse and meeting photographer Ahmet
• Kayaking through the surreal Vang vieng
• Working for the elephant festival

Cambodia

• Easy… spending 2 weeks with Julia
• Sweating in Angkor Wat
• Photographing the land evictions with LICADHO
• Having my eyes opened in Phnom Penh

Vietnam

• River markets of the Mekong Delta
• 5 days on a motorbike in the central highlands
• Traveling around with Alex
• Photographing Hoi An
• Beer Hoi nights in Hanoi
• The views and villagers in the tourist-free northern districts

Borneo

• Spotting wild orang utans at Uncle Tan’s jungle camp
• Swimming with turtles on Sipadan island
• Partying on a helipad
• A surprise encounter with wild elephants at the research centre
• Climbing Mt Kinabalu

Oh me bloody knees…

Made It! The peak of Mt Kota Kinabalu
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

One step at a time I kept telling myself. Just swing the hips and hopefully the other leg will end up in front. It sort of worked, until my right knee turned to jelly and decided to have a sleep preventing me from putting any weight on it! And I had 2 more hours of this left! A bloody long way for a sunrise.

Let’s start from the beginning, back at the foot of Mount Kinabalu, in Borneo, which at 4,100m makes it the highest mountain in Asia. By all counts this is a fluffy sounding mountain, one labeled as a fantastic adventure and which needs ‘no previous climbing experience’. No problem… I’ve been known to get out onto some peaks so this should be a doddle, a fantastic adventure even!

So let’s head off. Wait, I need a national park permit. “Over at that window please” I was told. Off I trot and pay my RM15 for the permit. Then for the climbing permit, “round the corner and at the little window please” another window and RM100. Then insurance (RM5) and guide fees (RM70) at another window and then finally the taxi ride from the park HQ to the foot of the mountain, another RM30 and “wait by that window please“. Well that was an adventure and I hadn’t even started up the mountain. Trust me to do the climb independently and not with a tour company like everyone else. I did save a shed load though so I would recommend it.

As I’d arrived a little late at 11am I’d missed most of the other climbers which apparently numbered about 100 for the day. No problems, I’m fairly fit I’ll catch them up; I had after all traded in my office chair for a life of leisure and had been keeping active… a stroll in the park.

So off I trotted into the mist and rain, the start of a 4 hour climb to the ‘base camp’ where we would grab a few hours sleep before heading to the summit for sunrise. My guide was as useful as a rubber teabag and kept hanging back and letting me go off before running to catch me up - from his limited English I learnt he was training to make the climb easier. I thought ‘Stop bloody running up it, that will make it easier’ but the git didn’t break a sweat the whole way so I guess he knew what he was doing. Anyway with him ‘training’ I tried to catch up some fellow climbers including someone I’d bumped into in Cardiff who lived in Grangetown, Cardiff about 1km from my flat! Small world!

As I started bumping into climbers coming down the hill I picked up the pace determined to catch up other climbers for some moral support. I had a spring in my step, this wasn’t too bad! Even when it started raining it didn’t seem to matter… press on old boy!

Mistake!

Even though it was a nice steady climb on a very well kept path, a bit like walking up a bunch of large stairs, by the time I’d caught up with some others I was starting to feel the pain and was drenched. Slow and steady they had told the other groups- trust me to have a guide who wanted to run it! So here I was swinging one leg in front of the other and just managing to move upwards. And so it continued, getting wetter and wetter and slowly heading up. Good fun though with everyone bitching and whinging, shivering and sniffing but all doing it together.

We reached base camp about 4pm looking like a bunch of drowned kittens in hike boots, it was 9°c and I laughed to myself when I couldn’t write my own name because of my numb fingers. We hung there in the warm for a few hours before heading off to our unheated dorms for a few hours kip. If anyone reads this then take plenty of warm stuff and pay the extra for the heating, it was bloody freezing.

Knock knock…. Who’s there?… my guide, at 2:30am!

The rain from the day before had cleared and like a scene from a 70’s zombie film half asleep climbers began to slowly emerge from the dorms and traipse up the mountain. It was pitch black and all you could see were a few headlights stretching like cheap Christmas tree lights off into the distance. Very surreal.

The gentle steps were replaced by slippery rock faces with the occasional rope for help and the smiles on the climbers had long gone too. By this time I was suffering the effects of the high altitude, I had a blinding headache and every 10 feet or so I was out of breath - why the hell had I bothered to get up and do this, this was hell on earth!

And then I noticed the first signs of light on the horizon, I could see the peak ahead of me and I knew I had only minutes to reach the top. With every last ounce of strength left in my body I pushed on. Except it wasn’t a few minutes to the top, it was more like 40! And it bloody hurt!

I was 5 mins from the top when I caught my first glimpse of the view. Stretching out into the distance was a carpet of clouds lying a few hundred feet below us, the first touches of light reflecting red onto their surfaces. Blimey, that was better than I expected and I was not going to miss the best light, I was going to get a picture if it killed me. It nearly did, I slipped and slided, coughed and spluttered, gagged and retched but eventually had my camera poised at the ready.

We were breathless with anticipation (actually we were breathless from the climb but it sounds better) and then the sun came up. I wont bore you with trying to romanticise a sunrise, it was pretty, red clouds, red sky, orange sun … you know, sort of sunrise like.

As you can see from the pic, it was quite a run of the mill sort of sunrise! Rubbish! I turned around and saw the shadow of the mountain stretching 2 hours away to the coast, I could still see the full moon shining in the sky and could just make out the city I had started in the day before, the view was amazing.

“We go down now” my guide suggested. Already? Ok. And off we trotted, only 7 hours to the bottom. We arrived at the base camp, had some breakfast and started the final decent. It looked like the rain was coming in and I stupidly bounced and bounded my way down the first hour or so, soon regretting it as my right knee gave in and it took me an extra hour to get to the bottom. This last bit was the hardest part of the walk and people were in tears around me with the pain in their knees. I was not far off myself.

As we saw the bus in the distance we asked each other if the view was worth the pain of the climb. All of us agreed it wasn’t. Even days after as I hobbled down the smallest of slopes with my sore muscles I was still wondering.

Now that I’m able to walk properly and looking at the photos… of course it was bloody worth it. I had climbed the highest mountain in SE Asia and had seen the best sunrise of my life; just don’t ask me to do it again!

Back to basics…

Wild Elephants @ Danum
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

If you’ve been reading my ramblings on these pages you’ve surely noticed that this trip is not just a tour of beaches. You’ve probably smiled to yourself when I tried to save the world in Thailand or when on my random escapades in Cambodia but I‘ve been smiling at myself too. I’ve managed to try new things, speak to different people and get a fresh perspective of my interests in life. It’s been great, except I still haven’t got a clue what I fancy doing when I get back to the UK!

I guess one of the things that’s crossed my mind more than once is whether I fancy heading back towards biology which is what I originally studied at Swansea all those years ago.

Someone had mentioned a jungle camp in southern Sabah (Borneo) where a bunch of researchers are looking at jungle stuff. There was even a link to my old university at Swansea so this seemed like an interesting place to see if I could be tempted back into a life of biology.

Danum Valley Research centre is based 20 km down a logging track in the middle of some of the last virgin rainforest in Borneo. It was a simple affair, no tourists as such, just a bunch or researchers and a couple of wildlife enthusiasts - nice and quiet so I got chatting to some of the researchers

These guys were focussed I can tell you. There were people studying termites in soil, ants in orchids and gas from trees and they all seemed to work from 8am to 10pm, 6 days a week. Could I spend that amount of time researching the same thing, no variety, no real contact with others? Nah, probably not, which was a good job really because that’s exactly what I worked out 7 years ago when I graduated.

One of the guys did mention an interesting option though and that was working in environmental compliance. Basically companies in the private sector are spending a lot of money making sure that they come up to scratch on various environmental rules and regulations. This is more of a consultancy type role where you get to deal with people, travel a bit and make more money than a researcher. This type of thing would combine some of my experience in the commercial sector with my biology background. I would probably have to do some more study if I wanted to get into this field but I guess it’s worth looking into as an option.

So I guess the visit was a useful one. I got to see some wild orang utans and elephants and managed to cross off researcher from my list! It was even worth the leech bites I got down my trousers.

The search continues!

Where's your caravan.....

Semporna Regatta Lepa, Borneo
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

I had heard that Borneo was a great place for seeing turtles, sharks and other large see creatures so now I was able to walk once again I headed off for some diving fun.

Semporna is the jumping off point for diving in the South East and I happened to walk into it right in the middle of a massive Sea Gypsy Regatta.... I'd never seen a sea gypsy let alone one in a regatta so I thought this could be fun - I wanted to catch a glimpse of a sea-caravan. Good plan except of course all the hotel rooms in the town were taken - I'd booked my diving but not accommodation! Doh!

This could be fun. I was going to be diving from a resort on a nearby island but could I find a room before shooting off? Thankfully 'Uncle Chan' from 'Uncle Chan's' diving company was kind enough to check out some local hotels and hostels but with no luck - no room at the inn, anywhere. Uncle Chan stepped up to the mark. "No problem, you can sleep in my spare office if you like. Bit of a mess but I'll clean it up a bit. OK-la?" So off we popped to see his office and yeap, he had some cleaning to do, even if just to brush some of the rat's droppings away. Well it was a free nights kip... I could push past it!

Off to find some gypsies! There to greet me were dozens of beautiful boats lining the harbor, all decorated with flags and bunting, musicians and dancers.

The Regatta Lepa as it's properly called has been held every year since 1994 and is a celebration of the original style of boats built by the Sabah East Coast Bajau community, a community of fishermen from local islands. Hundreds of boats are decorated and compete for the proze for being the most beautifully decorated Lepa in town. In addition to the decoration of the boat with flags each of them are filled with members of the family all crashing gongs, drums and other tuneless instruments to try and attract attention to the boat. It works, well it would if it weren't for the other 4000 gongs being smashed.

Anyway this was a nice little distraction before diving and I ended up with some nice colorful shots as a result, even sneaking backstage during the opening performance - it's amazing what you can get away with if you walk like you know where you're going.

So as the gongs ceased their banging I headed off to the office for a nights kip. I felt guilty as I opened the door, I hadn't realised I was sharing the room with so many others. They seem really pissed off with me disturbing them and with their 4 little legs all scuttled off into the roof, out the window and under the cupboards. That was a fun nights sleep I can tell you!!!!

Balls to this....

Show off!
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Parental advice.... don't eat whilst reading this blog!

When I started this trip I was paranoid that some strange illness was going to hit me and I'd have to come home early. My immodiums were always handy and ice was a definite no no.

I've always been fit and healthy but for some reason, I guess it's because I was far from home, I was becoming obsessed and paranoid. Every twinge, itch or nagging ache was sure to unfold into some kind of tropical disease. I was a walking time bomb waiting to explode.

This continued for weeks and was crazy. I guess I wasn't being completely paranoid tough as some of my work trips didn't go quite so smoothly. If I remember rightly I've been blighted by bouts of food poisoning, headaches and mass mosquito bites. Oh yeah and then there was that dreaded incident in Austin, Texas which led to me being named shoestring! (due to the amount of surgical packing used to heal a plum sized abscess on my arse!) God, I can’t believe I've brought that one up again!

Well I'm more than happy to say that for 5 months now I have pretty much been a picture of health, no food poisoning and only a couple of colds to scupper me. The only pain I've suffered on my bum was the day after very hot Thai curries - or after a 10 hour bus ride.
No new abscess waiting to send me home.

So what happened in the jungle caught me totally unawares!

Now when you're in the jungle you tend to get hot, very hot. I'm no exception to this other than I seem to get hotter than most, probably due to growing up in a cottage in rural Essex with no double glazing or central heating.
Traveling through Laos and Cambodia didn't seem to cause problems, it was only when I headed off 3 hours from the nearest pharmacist that some part of my body decided to come cause problems, and oh boy it couldn't get much worse!

Turn away now if you're eating!

Constant sweating in a highly humid environment with only a bucket to shower in caused me problems, big red sore problems. In my previous post I said I walked out of camp like John Wayne well this is why - I had self named Jungle Rot! Some cruel chain reaction occurred which left most of my er, er, upper thighs(ish) red raw and VERY bloody painful! What can you do, no ice, no clean water, no chemist.... no hope! I turned to the rice wine for salvation but sadly that only dulled the pain until the morning whereby a crafty walk out of my cabin revealed that the problem was still there!

My god people, there is no pain and shame in the world like that! To cover up my limp I was trying to convince people that I had hurt my knee but I am sure the guides knew the score. I had a full 24 hours left but ouch, I was in pain.

A strange thing happened though and it gave me a bit of hope for the constantly abused males that live on this planet. No, nobody offered to inspect the rash but on letting it slip to some of the other guys after a few drinks not one of them took the piss. There was a bunch of wincing and leg crossing but everyone clubbed around... we were a strong pack in that jungle, nothing would stop us.

I had offers of bag carrying on the way home and when we finally reached civilisation the lads searched for accommodation whilst I waddled off in search for a chemist. Well thanks lads, you were stars. I found a chemist and found the miracle gel.... oh I worship you. You will never leave my side again. The next day I rose from my air conditioned bed, stretched a leg, bent a knee, tried a step and yes, oh yes, I could walk, I was cured.

Do not leave home without this miracle gel!

Jungle is massive....

Uncle Tony
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Sorry, I needed to do that!

Wow, what a couple of weeks! Where do I start?

I thought this trip was moving along just nicely with me having fun but it just got a whole lot better. Arriving in Borneo was definitely a good move and one which was not really on the original plan.... what a mistake that would have been.

Arriving in Kota Kinabalu I struggled to get to grips with what to do on this island. Now, if you know me you'll know I can be a pain in the arse when it comes to making certain types of decisions... I have to plan, to weigh up risks, and make up my mind in my own little way..... in other words I faff! Well this trait was a royal pain in the arse this time as there were just too many choices in front of me. I was stuck with a pile of tourist brochures and not a booking in sight. What made it worse what that I bumped into a flustered couple saying that 'everywhere' was booked up and I'd be lucky if I got to do much.

If one of my traits is that I faff, another is that if someone says I wont be able to do something then I just have to prove them wrong, even if it kills me. And this is what happened!

I went to the first internet cafe I could find and within an hour I had booked a stay at 'Uncle Tan's a jungle camp hidden an hour down a raging river. Off I trotted that afternoon to the bus station and before I knew it I was stocking up for some jungle fun. So there I was Leech socks ( a bit like these http://www.mosquitohammock.com/AntiLeechSocks.html) in one hand and some 40% rice wine in the other and meeting a bunch of brits, Sweeds and Japanese ready to head off into the unknown.

First we all stopped off at Sepilok Orang Utan rehabilitation centre where I saw some long lost relatives up close. It's called a rehabilitation centre but was more like a circus as nearly 90 other tourists had arrived to see the feeding time and grab some photos. I'm not sure of the facts but apparently they slowly move the apes away from the tourists and they begin to fend for themselves... some stay for the free bananas. I would.

After this we all piled onto a minibus and before we knew it we were bombing down a river. Within 5 mins the driver slowed the boat down and shouted 'croc'. Fair enough there they were, two little eyes poking out of the water 20 feet from us.... my first croc sighting. The fact that it would have only been about 3 foot long didn't matter, I was in the bloody jungle!!!!

We arrived at camp and it was not bad! Mozzie nets and mattresses in some very rustic and open cabins with only chicken wire offering us protection from the wild savage beasts that lay in wait behind the trees.

As we waited for the briefing we decided to go for a wander... probably a stupid thing to do. Get the briefing THEN wander around a jungle! On my wander I strayed from the bunch and neared a very lame and looking shallow lake. Out came my camera but whilst doing so a bloody croc slid into the water not 3 feet from me! Blimey I cried, a croc! It was a 4 footer this time and could easily have nibbled a foot off or something. The fact I was wearing some very dirty sandles and was sporting some seriously overgrown toe-nails was probably my only saving grace!

Anyway back to the camp and time for the obvious question..."is this jungle safe? Is there anything that can hurt us?"

"Nah" Said Tony, the rather under eager guide. "Just don't swim in the river, there are some 3 metre crocs in there!

"Tony, what are those posters over there warning us of the centipedes, scorpions, leeches, spiders and snakes?" we asked. "Oh yeah, keep an eye out for them too" he replied.

We did!

So after dinner we popped on a small speed boat and in pitch darkness we headed off down the river with our guide and driver. Fair play, these guys are good. All earlier impressions were washed away as they sped along the river deftly avoiding driftwood and rubbish with the help of a very powerful flashlight and some good luck.

All of a sudden we would come to a quick stop and head to the shore. Looy, our wildlife spotter had, er, spotted something. God knows what, we couldn't see jack as we headed for the mud. All of a sudden he gleefully lept to shore returning with a frog in his hands - all 4cm's of it! How on earth he spotted that from 40 feet away, in pitch darkness, I will never know.

These guys continued to amaze us with their spotting skills and before long we'd seen 3m long crocs, a storkbilled kingfisher, a 5 foot long python and some proboscis monkeys. Back to the camp I went with a smile on my face. I was loving it.

Back at camp things got wild in a different way, the rice wine came out and we 'bonded'. Judging by the group that left the day before and by the new guys arriving the day after we were really lucky with the people we had in our group, all young (ish) like me and up for a good mix of partying and wildlife spotting.

So then the next day continued with a dawn boat ride and then a morning trek in the jungle. We got to see, proboscis monkeys, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques, hornbills, more crocs, snakes, lizards and lots of mosquitoes.

That evening the rice wine came out again and before we knew it a bunch of the guys fancied a race through the mud on the lake. "But what about the croc I saw" I piped up remarkably sensibly considering my rice induced state. "Don't worry, there are no crocs there, it was a monitor lizard you saw, very similar"

I was convinced it was a croc but hey, they're the guides so they won the toss. I stayed on shore with some of the other guys who wimped out and off they popped returning very muddy and thankfully unscathed.

The next day we headed off in search of a wild Orang utan. Sadly we didn't spot one but the other group did. When they whistled for us to come over we decided to hide behind a big tree ready to jump out on them when they arrived. They of course didn't and thus that jungle gag backfired on us!!

We returned to camp miserable as sin only to hear the others had seen an Orang. We were gutted and headed out after lunch but still no sightings after 2 hours. Sods law was working in our favour this time as when we arrived back at camp we spotted them behind the jungle block. My week was complete, I had seen a wild Orang Utan.


Sadly the trip was over on the 3rd day and I walked like John Wayne back to the boat whereby we headed off to the next adventure.

I would recommend this trip to anyone. It's not too intense and is put together by some very clever people who will make sure you see some very interesting wildlife.

Oh and by the way, on the last day one of the guides saw a 3 foot croc in the lake. I bloody told you it wasn't a Monitor Lizard!

This world gets smaller....

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in North Borneo..... In walks a guy I was on an island with 2 weeks ago. Not a huge coincidence as we're both on the same island and there are only half a dozen internet cafes. But then walk in a couple who I met twice in Laos and then again 2 months later in Vietnam.

I need to change my haircut... maybe I'll go for a centre parting this time!

Where & When....

Ok, trying hard to catch up on these posts but I keep ending up in places without computers.... it
s great!

Anyway, just as a bit of a round up...

To finish up my Vietnam trip I ended up in Hanoi then Alex (the Italian) and I toddled off on a 2 day bike tour in the Northern hills. Left on the 15th for Borneo. This was perhaps the best scenery I have ever seen in my life and not a single other tourist was seen on the entire trip... bliss!

From Vietnam I flew into KL and then after a 6 hour stop-over I landed in Malaysian, Borneo or now known as Ade's little paradise! I have been camping and trekking in the jungle (www.uncletans.com) where I came feet from wild pythons, hornbills, 2m long crocodiles and orang utans and have just spent the last few days diving off a tiny island in the south east. To date this has to be the highlight of my trip and I'm remembering what it is like to get away from it all and into the wild.... .I am the missing link!

Anyway by some quirk of coincidence after chatting to someone at an orang utan conservation centre I found out there is a research centre in Borneo that has some strong links with Swansea University which is where I studied all those years ago. Well I thought it would be rude not to pop in, especially as an ex swansea student heads some of the research up here.... I'm on my way there as we speak. Who knows where this could lead!!!

Easy Rider

Sunrise over Lak Lake, Central
Highlands, Vietnam
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

With a previous post knocking the tourist traps of Vietnam I was convinced there was another way. I had bumped into someone in Siagon who had mentioned that there were a bunch of people in a place called Dalat who took people round the Central Highlands on the back of their motorbike.

Having hired a couple of mopeds when I wanted to get around some less touristed areas this seemed like a great way to travel. Plus after my time in Cambodia with LICADHO I was itching to get some more shots for the portfolio but this time of more mainstream subject matter.

So there I was in Dalat after a very long 8 hour bus trip and was bombarded by people trying to sell me tours including the Easy Rider tours. Now this is not the right time to approach me and try and sell me something, I am tired, sweaty and hungry and have just been packed into a seat better suited to a small child rather than a 6'8" lout from the UK.

Eventually my mood lightened as did the shackles on my wallet and I decided to head off on a 5 day tour to my next destination. I spoke to 2-3 Easy Rider guides and finally settled on a guy called Mr Lee. He was a quiet guy and less pushy than the other bunch which certainly meant he went up in my books. We settled at $40 a day which included petrol and entrance into any attraction we went to. He would also pay for his own food which meant we would go to the cheap places!

This is certainly not cheap and similar bus tours could end up at less than half this price. I took the plunge though as I felt I would have far more control over my experience and we could go off shooting without having to be bundled into a bus every 5 minutes.

I was right. We strapped on my rucksack to the back of the bike and headed off. Lee soon realised that this was going to be a long way as he was carrying a big lad with a big bag... it was slow up some of those hills!

The first day we shot off to a coffee plantation, a silk farm and a rice wine brewery then that night we stayed on a lake at a minority village and I was up at 5:30 taking the sunrise picture you see on this post. Over the next 5 days we snaked our way through mountain ranges in the central highlands, able to stop at dozens of villages and take as many shots as I wanted.

It was a great few days and at some point I will adjust this post with the exact trip but for anyone reading this, take a cushion.... 5 days on a bike and 900km is no easy task!

Tourist Vietnam

Vietnamese Flag
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

There are basically 2 tourist routes in Vietnam.... North to South or South to North. Like a little tourist factory everything is geared up to ferry you between these two sites and make your experience as easy and as painless as possible.
'Open Tour' bus tickets are the first purchase, it is very simple to buy a single ticket from a tour operator and then hop off and on at a range of common destinations throughout the country. At each destination there are associated hotels, restaurants and tours operating to push you around the sites. This makes a very efficient experience and you get to see a lot of sites on a fairly tight budget. The only problem is you are not really in control of your experience. It is quite simple to hop to another hotel but often preferential rates go only to people purchasing a tour, tours are busy but they head to the same places as everyone else and runs on a standard timetable making the random sunrise very hard to go and shoot with a camera.

So I tried my hardest to escape convention and headed off to Dalat where I had heard of a tour group called ‘Easy Riders’ who take people on the back of their motorbike to a range of less touristy areas

Small World

AMT_3298
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

When you’re travelling it’s quite common to bump into people a couple of times in the same city, after all you tend to go to the same sites and often end up following the page sequence. Bumping into people in different countries is not impossible but tends to be less common. Having it happen loads of times just gets stupid.

I met Alessandro, an Italian guy in Hongsa when he turned up as I did to volunteer at the elephant festival. We spent a few busy days together there but as soon as the event was over we both headed off in our separate directions assuming to catch up over email one day.

So it was quite a surprise then 2 weeks later when I was sat in a restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and looked up to see Alex walking past. I called out and we caught up over a few happy hour drinks. We once again headed off in our separate directions, him south and me to take some pictures.

The surprise was even bigger the next time. I was in Saigon this time chatting to a Belguim photographer in a busy bar when I happened to look outside and see Alex once again walking past. He had just got in to Saigon and we had no idea we would both be there at the same time.

By this time we just gave up and ended up travelling together for a couple of days before I headed off on my motorbike trip and him on a different route. We’d meet in a few days but would work that out when we got there.

No need! I was sitting having lunch in Hoi An and there was Alex, walking past the café. Another big coincidence!

What was good about this was that we both had very similar interests and a similar sense of humour so we made good travel companions. We hung around for another couple of weeks until we said out goodbyes in Hanoi.

Alex is off to Thailand now and then back home to Italy so I guess the next time we meet will be an even bigger quirk of fate…. Although he has offered to take me round the Alps on his bike so it may not be purely luck!

Vietnam - Mekong Delta rush..

River Market, Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

My time in Vietnam began with a tourist trip to the Mekong Delta which is in the south of the country. We had been warned by 100's of people that there is a very strong tourist industry in Vietnam and you can easily find your whole experience being as part of a guided tour. Despite this, a couple of us signed up to a tour of the Mekong Delta.

It was a nice area but not quite what we expected. There was about 20 of us on this tour and we felt like cattle after about 2 hours. A local Coconut candy factory was actually a souveneir outlet which made a bit of candy, the trip to the rice mill didn't actually show us the mill (until I snuck round the back) and the tropical fruit tasting involved a plate of pineapples and bananas... which is what they had served us at breakfast!

Saying this however there was no way we would have been able to organise this same trip and see so much on our own. There were dozens of river trips, ferry crossings and small bus rides that would have taken me a week to suss out.

The tour did show us a facinating insight into river life and let me taste some nice rice wine so I musnt grumble!

www.Couchsurfing .com

I wrote a post some time ago about www.couchsurfing.com, a website which puts travellers in touch with hosts in various countries. These hosts can either just meet the traveller and offer advice or go that one step further and offer the person accommodation for a couple of nights.

Well through the site I met a lovely Vietnamese couple in Saigon who were kind enough to pick me up from my guest house and take me far off the beaten track to some proper Vietnamese restaurants and bars where they told me a lot about their lives and offered a lot of advice on where to head in the days to come.

Thanks Ha Minh, I’m only sorry I couldn’t stay longer,

If you haven't signed up yet then please do... I'm going to need a place to stay when I get back!!!

zzzzZZZZZZ

God that last post sounded a little too much like work for me!!
Right, I'm now in Borneo playing with Orangutans (from a far) and have realised I still haven't caught up on this blog yet. There's a huge tropical storm outside and I have jungle rot so it's time to get writing and tell you all about it!

Did it Intern out OK?

My last posts left you with as much of a cliff hanger as my current lifestyle could muster - I was contemplating staying in Cambodia to work with a human rights group called LICADHO. Did I stay?

The charity documents and photographs human rights violations and demonstrations and ends up wth 100's of photos which need to be effectively cataloged for future use within the international NGO community and world press.

The idea presented to me was to write a proposal for a new system for managing these images. It would allow other organisations to upload their own images to a central web based library and also have a secure way of managing who could download them. This could end up as a fund raising scheme and also raise the profile of the organisation.

Well I spoke to a bunch of people in the organisation and in the NGO community and I actually ended up talking my self out of a job in the process!! In reality the project could have worked in a different environment but for LICADHO we agreed it would not return the benefits that would make the project worthwhile!

So there was the internship back off the table by my own doing! Oh well!

Despite this minor setback, LICADHO, and in particular their Director Naly Pilorage were extremely helpful during my stay. We worked together on a couple of stories during my Cambodia trip and I was able to cover them with my camera.

I will write a little about these other stories in my next couple of posts.

Er, missing in action.

Ok, I've done it again! Despite all my promises I haven't bothered updating this thing in a while! Well I've over 500 photos to sort through and 2 countries to write about so I guess I should get writing! Maybe a quick coffee first .....

A cut above the rest

A cut above the rest
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the economies of the countries I’ve been visiting are not as strong as many in the ‘western world’. It’s not surprising really as these countries are all nursing the economic wounds of recent civil wars, political unrest and extremist governments. Corruption taints the air wherever you go and this pushes a huge divide between the rich and the poor.

What’s been interesting is how adaptable people become when they have to. When forced to make do, people make do in anyway they can. Everywhere you turn people have used and reused items for a number of different uses. Empty oil drums are welded together to make crude compressors for roadside tyre inflators, gallon plastic bottles are halved to make scoops for bailing out boats, cardboard boxes make crude walls and 1 litre cordial bottles are used for selling petrol. A whole industry exists to make tools and implements from discarded items, nothing is wasted.

We often take a lot for granted when sitting at home surrounded by single use items. Everything has its purpose and if ‘what is says on the tin’ isn’t quite what we want then we’ve all been guilty of discarding it only to drive to Tescos to buy a closer fit.



Is this the real meaning of disposable income – that we can afford to throw things away?

A bit of fun.... Gullivers travels

A bit of fun.... Gullivers travels
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Excuse the cheesy looking grin but I thought this might tickle you all!!

On a trip where I'm about 2 foot taller than the average person you got to laugh.

Who am I kidding I'm 2 foot taller than the average person wherever I go!!

Meat in the middle?

Skinny Ade
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Most of you know I have been a veggie for a long time, 15 years to be exact(ish). Not to bore you but I stopped eating meat basically because I could - simple as that. It doesn't sit right with me to kill another animal when I can live just as healthily with a veg diet. I don't lecture other people, I just get on with it which is what I'll do with this post......Can I maintain a healthy diet in an area where vegetarians are an absolute rarity?

(keep reading until the end by the way, I have a nice little story after the dull stuff!)

Just skipping back a couple of years for a moment, when I left uni I was a whooping 20 stone and needed to drop a couple of chins, fast. Well this slowly happened and when I started my travels I had nicely settled at a modest 16.5 stone. This meant I had said goodbye to my beer gut, love handles and man-boobs and had got a body back which was last seen walking into a pub at the age of cough cough, 18. Well now I seem to have lost another 2 inches on my belt which meant I needed a new hole in it - my swiss army knife finally got a new use other than peeling mangoes and opening beer cans. This new slender Ade seems to mean I can find Asian T-Shirts that can fit but also means I looks like a bloody skeleton on some of the pics, the one above being a prime example.

I guess this has all happened partly from me not sitting in front of a PC all bloody day and also a severe lack of wholesome veggie grub. Though eating as many fried rice and vegetable dishes as I could squeeze it just doesn't seem to cut the mustard (mustard is very rare in asia too by the way). Even when I hit the tourist places and stuff in a few pizzas it doesn't seem to make a big difference so I've started to shed more pounds.

'Should I eat meat' I thought at one stage? Well, considering that in many of the countries I would have no idea what meat I was eating, plus with 15 years of stubborn vegetarianism behind me I quickly shed this notion and replaced it instead with vitamin pills and trying a little harder to eat more. I have also had to become a little more open to the fact that it is nearly impossible to get a pure vegetarian dish ie one which is not cooked with meat or fish stock. This isn't perfect but I guess better than malnutrition and certain death of the trip. This new openness though didn't prepare me for something that happened in Laos.

Here I was, at the Elephant Festival staying in a homestay which basically means I was staying with a Laos family on their floor in front of the TV. They didn't speak English so with the help of a translation sheet and a copy of the Lonely Planet I explained I was a veggie and would be more than happy to join her for breakfast the next morning as long as it was only veg, eggs and cheesy things. At 6am the next morning, just as the sun was rising, I sat on the floor in the kitchen whereby food was served in front of me.

It's tradition in Laos to have a bunch of dishes served with 'sticky rice'. Everyone grabs a bit of this rice in one hand, rolls it into a ball and carefully pinches off a bit of another dishes before combining the two and stuffing it all into the mouth before it falls on the floor... not an easy task especially as being a left hander I was using my right hand to avoid the social embarrassment of using my er er 'toilet hand' for want of a better word. So there I was tucking into veg dishes made from a giant squash, hard boiled eggs and a lush omelet. It was lovely food and very romantic as the kitchen was lit only by the light from outside and a 40w light bulb. The omelet was particularly nice but hard to eat as I kept dropping crumbs on the floor. It was a nice savory omelet and contained spinach and rice shaped seeds which popped in the mouth. Well I thought they were seeds until the light came up some more!

As the sun broke through the window I saw I had dropped loads of crumbs and tried to pick them up. I noticed that they were all the same size and shape and thought they were the seeds I was happily popping away. I picked one up and with a little more light realised they were not in fact seeds but instead were eggs, not chicken eggs but bloody massive ant eggs! Oh my god I nearly puked there on that same homestay kitchen floor! Bloody lonely planet, could you not have put in a phrase which meant eggs are fine but only chicken ones! I can't believe it, my first digression in years and it wasn't the bacon sandwich I always expected it was a bloody ant omelet! Oh how I laughed!

So for those of you out there reading this as dietitians, mothers or general worriers you may have cast a concerned look at my photos, but please don't worry, Oz is coming which with the help of a few beers, pizzas, and mixed veg dishes will have me back on the way to being a well rounded person once again.

And for those of you who fancy cooking up an ant egg omelet don't bother, they're a nightmare to crack open on the side of a pan and take 6421,000 to fill up a grown man. Recipes and pictures can be found here

PS if anyone has any pics of me at 20 stone I would love to see them!!

A Cambodian Job offer!!

Alms over Angkor
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Right, I couldn’t write this much without putting in something about my project to hook up with a bunch of charities around the globe. Well to be honest these last few days have been like the last time I worked in sales. I have been frantically searching out contact details of charities and NGOs and pimping myself out to dozens of people in the process. Well after a few rejections and ignored mails I have managed to visit 2 organisations here in Phnom Penh who might be able to make use of my skills. The first is a conservation education organisation called Mlup Baitong (www.mlup.org/) and the other is a Cambodian human rights organization called LIDACHO (http://www.licadho.org/aboutus.php) .

The conservation charity have invited me to visit a couple of their projects next week to photograph whilst LIDACHO have made a very interesting proposition! As LIDACHO is a much larger organization than Mlup then it is not so easy for me to just breeze in, take photos and leave two weeks later. This is why when they saw my emails and CV they were thinking along the lines of a three month internship rather than a two week visit…

Some serious thinking for me to do now. This is a VERY interesting and unique opportunity but one which could mean I have to juggle around my trip dates. Which is exactly where I am now! Finishing this blog I have to go and think about what I am doing next. Tomorrow I meet the director again and we chat some more whilst I photograph a human rights demonstration at a funeral of a murdered union leader here in Phnom Penh.

Wish me luck!