rach150384

Unimpressed with La Serena

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:45:58 GMT

Hi all,

I'm currently in La Serena, about 300 miles N of Santiago. I tacked on an extra day to explore a bit before heading back to Santiago and then on to Easter Island. However, I feel like I'm missing the point of La Serena. I made a list of everything I wanted to see and had seen everything within 4 hours, and that's with multiple reading breaks in the park. Yet, this is a popular backpacker destination. I can't figure out why.

Don't get me wrong, La Serena is perfectly nice as towns go but it's lacking on the tourist attractions. It's got a beach which is probably much nicer in summer although I did enjoy watching the waves for a bit and it's got several parks, which, disappointingly, look like parks that one might find in the US, Thailand, the UK etc. The best bit is probably the archaeological museum (the German guy in our room last night had the hardest time saying 'archaeological', poor bloke). The museum has pottery and various artifacts from over 1000 years ago and from all parts of Chile. Sadly, the little explanation placards were in Spanish so I made up my own descriptions. "Here we have a large knife commonly used to remove bogies" etc etc. Best of all, it has one of the few BigHeads (officially known as Moai) removed from Easter Island.

So my day in La Serena was a bit underwhelming but hey, now I know. It's worth spending half a day in, one full day is a bit much and I hope you have a good book if you're staying longer than that. That said, the weather is nice enough, the scenery is good and I'm off to the airport in half an hour.

So enjoy the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384

To the BigHeads!

Rach

The Worky Bit

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:49:34 GMT

Hey all,

I'll do a bit of a post about the worky bit of the trip just to pretend that this wasn't all about the opportunity to see the BigHeads on Easter Island.

The telescope is located on a mountain, Cerro Pachon, at 9000ft, which means it's above most of the clouds. Unfortunately it wasn't quite above *all* of the clouds and so two thirds of the intended science objectives died when I saw this:

A decent chunk of astronomy deals with accurately figuring out how bright things are and it's impossible to do if clouds keep flitting across your image, obscuring that light astronomers so desperately crave. However, we had a few backup projects in case of clouds so all was not lost. There was a reasonable amount of snow up there but a dedicated plow had shoved it out of my way. Oh, that little Toyota in the photo was the car I used for the 4 days I was up there. The 'hotel' was 3km from the dining room and telescope so I had great fun zipping along the dirt track. Of course, the car had a top speed of about 45km/h and the brakes weren't so good.

I spent a bit of time wandering around in awe of the magnificent vista then figured I should actually figure out the night's observing plan, given the cloud condition. Luckily, my room had wireless so I listened to songs through youtube (it has *everything*) and worked out a rough strategy then headed up to the telescope to do some calibration images. Since the telescope and camera are not perfectly clean, you can end up with artifacts on your images, primarily caused by bits of dust on various bits of the system, e.g. filters, mirrors etc. So to get rid of those, you take an image of a plain white screen. Then any variations in your image (anything that isn't a white screen) is due to dust etc. in the system. Then you divide those out of your science images. Anyway. That didn't take too long so I went over the weather forecast with the telescope operators (they move the telescope for you and do the engineery-stuff) and it was not good. A giant band of cloud from the south was headed our way. In fact, here is a picture of it from earlier in the day:

We went off to eat dinner and collect our night lunches. A night lunch is intended to replace the meal that you usually eat around the middle of your waking hours. It's pretty much the same as a regular lunch except you eat it at about midnight. Or, if you're like me - the child at the cinema who had eaten all of her sweeties before the trailers were finished - you eat it at about 9pm. Earlier if you're bored. We came back to the telescope and started setting up. The sky was cloudy but sometimes if the clouds are thin you can observe anyway, as long as you're not aiming for good information about the brightness of an object. So we pointed a third magnitude star which means, in clear weather, it is easily visible to the naked eye. The telescope could barely 'see' it. This is a 4m telescope, meaning the diameter of the mirror is about twice the length of Jeremy Clarkson. We clearly had a problem with the weather. The objects I was aiming to observe were about 40 million times fainter than that. So the night was dead. We hung out until 3:30am when I was told that all the other observers had given up hours ago (pansies). We headed back down to our rooms about an hour before twilight, which signals the end of the night for astronomers.

I slept from 5am til 12pm - this is a fairly early night for an astronomer. I woke up hoping it would look better but no. It looked worse than yesterday, if anything. Here's a picture of the dome that houses the telescope I was using. Note the giant giant band of cloud.

Regardless, I went through the motions of setting up and taking calibration frames. Dinner, nightlunch, and a closed dome. Darn. Luckily for me, my older brother was trying to work in Australia, 14 time zones ahead, and I bugged him via skype. We had great fun being the grown-ups we are by using an online application designed to allow people to hold online business meetings. What they didn't realize was just how much fun two people in their mid-twenties could have with the drawing feature they had added. The result is below. We sent it to our mum so she can put it on the fridge. I expect to see that at Christmas, Mum.

At 3:30am the encouraging news that there appeared to be a hole in the southern edge of the cloud. I had a quick look through my object list and, yes, there was one lump of rock in that region. So we waited 30 minutes to check that the hole and weather was roughly stable and... in the time the wind picked up to 80km/h meaning that the dome couldn't be opened even if the sky was perfectly clear. So there went that night.

Just for fun, here's a pic from the telescope controls:

Rinse and repeat. Slept 6am-1pm. Lunch, take photos, calibration images, dinner, nightlunch. Watch all-sky camera show nothing but clouds for 5 hours. And then the temperature dropped and ice began to form. Once the dome had ice on it, that was it. Game over. You can't open an icy dome for fear the ice will drop inside onto the telescope mirror. I should say that a telescope mirror is not like a mirror one might have at home, which has the shiny bit protected by a layer of glass. This layer of glass produces all sorts of optical distortions and problems which you don't notice too much when checking your hair (as I do frequently) but these distortions have a terrible effect on the quality of astronomical images. So we just have the shiny bit, typically made of an aluminIum alloy, with no protective layer. The thickness of aluminIum layer is only about 0.1% of the thickness of a hair on your head. So you can imagine that the layer is pretty fragile and needs to be protected from falling ice, dust-laden winds, spitballs, etc.

More importantly for our safety, ice had begun to form on the winding roads that led back to our warm beds. Fog had also rolled in. So we packed up and set off in a procession - one telescope operator (TO) leading, me in the middle in my little Toyota, followed by the other TO. I'd like to point out that they had big trucks with proper manual gearboxes and my stupid car was an automatic which had a nasty habit of wanting to stay at 40km/h - not a good speed on steep, bumpy, icy roads and one wrong turn will see you sliding over the edge of a cliff. But we made it just fine and headed for bed. I set the alarm for 5:30am to catch the sunrise but one look out the window was sufficient to confirm that the fog had not lifted and waking up that early was pointless. So back to bed I went.

I headed back to La Serena at 3pm with no data to show for 3 nights. That's the danger of being an observational astronomer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you watch youtube for 3 nights. I mean, err, sometimes you write scientific papers and proposals for three nights. Yeah.

And now the backpacking fun begins! More from La Serena coming soon...

Rach

Planes, airports, etc.

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:29:55 GMT

Hey all,

So I'm in Chile, ostensibly for work but I've tacked about a week of vacation on the end to take full advantage of a free airfare to South America.

I'm here because an astronomer in Arizona was awarded time to use a telescope in Chile but was unable to go on the observing run and he asked for a volunteer to take his place. Free trip to Chile anyone? Yes, please. With my advisor recommending me as an experienced observer I was chosen to spend 3 nights at the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) on Cerro Pachon, Chile. Woo hoo! The aim was to look at some Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs, fancy was of saying lumps of rock past Neptune) to nail down their positions. Constraining orbits is important work if you want to be able to observe the objects, without spending half the night examining a large area of sky to find them, in a year or two's time. So I packed a small amount of belongings in a backpack (no checked in bag makes things simpler) and off I went.

So... let's start with the journey. I flew from Honolulu, Hawaii to Dallas, Texas. An 8 hour flight but was there any food? No. Thanks American Airways. Then came the 13 hour connection in Dallas. I tried to get a hotel room (since work was paying) but they told me I would have to pay for two nights, given the hours I would need it for - 8am to 8pm. So never mind. I paid $25 for a day pass to the business club lounge which was full of free beer, wine, soft drinks, food etc. Once I'd also paid for internet access I was a happy camper. Oh, they also had nice hot showers. Lovely. The day went quickly enough and soon I was on a 10 hour flight to Santiago. Pretty boring flight, don't remember much of it so I guess I slept a lot. Did get a couple of good pictures of the desert when we were about 100 miles north of Santiago.

Then through Chilean immigration (far more efficient that the American version, I have to say) and past a long line of Americans and Australians complaining about the entrance tax. This is actually a reciprocity tax, and the Chileans honestly label it as such. If it costs a Chilean money to enter your country as a tourist, it will cost you money to enter theirs. So it's worst for the Americans who charge citizens of most countries $131 to get a tourist visa. I heard one American describe it as a "rip-off the gringo tax'". No buddy, it's a "let's-get-even tax". But, happily, I am British! And so it was free to enter as a tourist. Not that it would have mattered since I simply would have forwarded the bill to work.

I walked out past the duty-free to arrivals in Santiago and was confronted by a barrage of questions. "Taxi? Need taxi?" "Hotel?" "Want tour?" No, no and no. I pretty much ran past the horde of people waiting for their loved-ones and up to departures. There was an awesome machine there, named 'Luggage-Secur', or some such. The machine basically wraps your bag in bright yellow clingfilm (saranwrap). It was amazing. Probably a bit irritating for any security official that has to open it along its journey but oh well. So I watched that for a few minutes then continued through to domestic departures to catch my flight to La Serena. I had 4 hours there and I don't really remember what I did, other than confirm myself as a tourist by getting a sandwich from Starbucks, not understanding when the woman asked me if I wanted it hot and buying myself and the Helens some souvenirs. Then on to La Serena.

La Serena is a small historic city on the coast about 300 miles N of Santiago. Actually, with Chile it's hard to be far from the coast. Have you seen the ridiculous shape of this country? Hmm, I wonder if this is the country with the weirdest shape... well, I can't think of a better one. La Serena has a population of ~160000, or it did when my Lonely Planet guidebook was written. My taxi driver, Tito (spelled phonetically) met me at the airport and drove me to "The Compound", the headquarters for a bunch of telescopes. I picked up keys etc. from the security guard on the way in and was dropped off at my room. The place I was staying in was essentially a motel, with a small communal kitchen which I raided for any food without a name clearly marked on it. I found enough to have a dinner of egg-fried rice, followed by marmalade toast and a yoghurt, washed down with milk. YUM. Then followed some naps, an hour trying to guess the wifi password, half an hour trying to unlock the door to the library that reportedly had computers hooked up to the interweb, a quick meeting with a Dutch astronomer who also couldn't get the wireless to work but did know how to open the library door and then some quick gmailing and hotmailing. I went to sleep at about 3am, figuring I was most of the way towards being a night-owl.

Next day, I was taken up the 9000ft mountain, which lies just west of the Andes. Watch this space for photos... or go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384

Rach

Coming soon....

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:30:04 GMT

Chile!

Last day in Rio

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:18:48 GMT

I had a lovely 9 hour bus ride to Rio in which I watched some movie that I actually wanted to see but could not understand due to Portuguese dubbing and Spanish subtitles. Stoopid non-multilingual me. I headed back into the center of Rio by bus and, of course, missed my intended bus stop by two miles. I hate buses! Trains have to stay on the track and every station has a sign so you know where you are but buses? Buses can go wherever they want, there's nothing telling you the route and if you don't know what your bus stop looks like you'll mark yourself as a tourist by peering out the windows trying in vain to identify street names. End of rant against buses. So I sighed and, since I didn't know the number of a bus that would take me back and feared ending up even further off course, pulled the rain cover over my backpack and started walking.

It was raining A LOT so by the time I got to the youth-hostel infected area I was soaked. I wandered up to a hostel marked in Lonely Planet and asked how much for a bed. R$45, they said. 30USD? For a bed in a dorm? I raised my eyebrows in reply and the guy shrugged apologetically. I wandered off. As I was walking past a courtyard gate I heard someone say, "Bed? Bed? You want a bed?". Yes, I did want a bed. In fact, I really just wanted a roof. So I looked in and saw a bunch of flags hanging outside a small terraced house. Aha. A new hostel. And only R$25 for a night. I was very apologetic as I and my bag dripped 6 litres of water on the floor but the worker was lovely, showed me where everything was and then let me have breakfast for free.

I changed, met the American guys I was sharing my room with (the funniest Americans I've ever met) and headed out to arrange hang-gliding for the next day. Fortuitously, the guys that did the hang-gliding were based just across the courtyard in another hostel. They told me the weather forecast was not good and did I still want to go if it was a bit cloudy? Given the cost of hang-gliding I decided to wait for sunny weather, meaning I'll have to do it on another trip somewhere else. Instead, I booked a place on a tour of one of the favelas (slums) in Rio. At first I was a bit dubious of the idea of paying to view poor people but the leaflet claimed "Not voyeuristic!" and I had heard good reviews from other backpackers along the gringo trail. So that was booked for tomorrow and I spent the rest of the day munching on lots of things from the bakery and wandering around parks. Oh, and drinking with the Americans. Of course.

My guide for the favela tour picked me up from the hostel and we set off for Rosinho, Rio's oldest and largest favela. It is home for over 300,000 people. The homes are built in a steep valley, landslides are a common problem since none of the homes have real foundations - amazing when you realize that most of them are upwards of 3 stories high. Once someone has built a property in Rosinho they own the land and to make a quick buck, they will sell their roof space to another family so that another home can be built on top. In turn that family will sell their roof etc. etc.

We each jumped on the back of a motorbike to be ferried up to the top of the favela. From there we would walk down, through the makeshift streets. The bikeriders were insane, driving so quickly and so close to *oncoming* traffic that several of the girls were shrieking and I was clutching onto the handholds for dear life. That said, it was fantastic. I'm not sure if they drive like that normally, perhaps it was just to scare the gringos. The riders run sort of a taxi service, takng people up and down the valley for R$3. While the favela was initially just cheap housing, it now has many small businesses, a government-funded health center, a daycare for kiddos and even a post-office.

We reached the top in one piece and immediately I noticed the illegal electricity hookups, with cables stretching from building to building. Our guide told us that they have taken it one step further now with many homes also having free (illegally obtained) cable and internet access. At this point we were on the main road - the reason for the location of Rosinho. The tour guide has an arrangement with the druglords who run the favela - part of our money pays for the daycare center and in return the tourists have to follow these rules:

Don't buy drugs from anyone here - the police generally stay out of the favelas but would have to come in if they caught a tourist with drugs from one of the favelas.
Don't take a picture of anyone with a gun
Don't take a picture of anyone with a walkie talkie - these are watchers and are responsible for monitoring who goes in and out of the favela.

We walked past a couple of teenage watchers into the favela. The "street" was extremely narrow, no more than 2ft wide. As we walked down the conditions worsened. Rainfall washes debris, sewage and trash down the valley and into the houses. Thus, the rent for a house at the top of Rosinho is higher than for a house at the bottom. We stopped at a bakery (and put a little money into the Rosinho economy) then walked to a kids' music center. Some of the kids did a drum show for us using empty buckets. They weren't exactly good...or even rhythmic but they perform in Carnival every year. Their hearts were in it, at least. We were told that, while there are no schools in Rosinho, the kids get free bus rides as long as they are wearing school uniforms so they can get to and from school each day.

We finished by walking through an open air market. Why does every Brazilian market sell remote controls? I almost bought one as a joke gift for someone but by this point I was very close to having to exchange another travellers' cheque which is always a pain. See a previous post for complaints about exchanging money in Rio. The tour was undoubtedly the best thing I did in Rio. It was great to see in person all those things you learn about in school, and to see the work being done by both charities and the government in the poorer areas of Rio.

I spent the rest of the day attempting to withdraw R$20 so I could pay for both a taxi to the airport and my bed (I only had enough for one). It took 4 ATMS and 3 credit cards but I finally found a combination that works. Word of advice for anyone going to Brazil: take cash and travellers' cheques.

Off to airport then home!

Until the next trip,

Rach

Ilha do Mel

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:15:12 GMT

A 90 minute boat ride later we arrived on the tiny strip of sand that connects the two halves of Ilha do Mel. I wandered off with a couple of French (I think) girls to find somewhere to stay. Since it was the low season most places were closed but we eventually found a good place on the southern half of the island. The Frenchies dumped their stuff and disappeared while I wandered back up to the sand bar with my mp3 player. I suddenly had a weird urge to exercise and so went for a barefooted run along the western shore of the island. While on my run I saw this:

Dead fish. It was in fact just one of many dead fish in a fish graveyard on the beach. I walked back as the sun was setting, then went on an internet hunt. This was harder than it sounds since there is only one place with internet on the island, everything is connected by tiny sandy trails through rainforest that all look the same, and there is no lighting. So I set off with my tiny maglite, cursing the housemates that suggested watching '28 Days Later' (zombie film). As I wandered down a random trail with no inkling of the direction I should be going in, I heard screams from behind me and suddenly two teenage girls came bursting out of the undergrowth, lighting their way with a cell phone screen. They screamed louder when they saw me, then burst into laughter. They had freaked themselves out, I'm guessing they had also seen a zombie film recently. Happily, they knew where the internet place was and took me there in return for me guiding the way with my torch. I managed to make it home alone, although with at least one wrong turn that ended with me standing at the edge of the ocean.

I got up early the next morning to watch sunrise from the sand bar, then started walking towards the north of the island. I came across a fort so I spent a happy half hour exploring that before discovering a trail that led to the highest point on the island where the military (two hundred years ago) built a lookout post.

I wandered on up to the north shore of the island, meaning to walk around to the other side (~7 miles) but alas, the map had lied and instead of beaches there were only marshes and pointy sticks along my intended route. To be fair, I gave it a good go, going so far as to strip to my bikini, put all my belongings in my bag and swim across a river opening with my bag above my head just like the army guys do. However, I was forced to give up when I realised that not only were the marshes impenetrable but, additionally, nobody would find my body for weeks should something happen. So I trudged back towards the southern half to check out the surfing beaches.

Six miles later I reached Praia Grande and watched a couple of surfers for a while. I continued on my trek to find some caves (no great shakes) and a town (just a supermarket) then hiked back up the coast to a lighthouse to watch the sun set.

Pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384.

Oh, almost forgot - I stumbled across a dead dolphin being pecked to pieces by vultures on the north shore of the island. It did not smell good.

And then to Rio

Rach

Curitiba and a train

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:30:07 GMT

I have decided to finally finish writing my blog about my Brazil trip, after a tirade from my older brother who apparently checked my blog every day for six weeks after I got back to Hawaii. Sorry bro. In addition, the weather is currently terrible and so I can't use the telescope. So, where were we?

Aaah yes. Off to Curitiba, pronounced Cur-ih-chee-bah. Arrived at the airport where I promptly got ripped off for a tourist bus because I couldn't find the regular bus stops. But no matter because "ripped off" meant I paid about 4USD instead of 2USD. The grand plan was to spend one night in Curitiba then catch a train to Paranagua, a small town on the south-east coast, where I would then get a boat to Ilha do Mel. So I arrived at the bus station, found the train station just behind and accidentally bought a regular-person train ticket instead of the tourist ticket. I keep doing that. I think it's because I keep trying to use Portuguese. If I just shouted English very slowly at people I would certainly end up on the tourist coaches.

Mission accomplished, I left the train station in search of my youth hostel. I found it eventually, memorising the location of a shop selling bacon sandwiches along the way. It's been years since I had a good bacon sarnie. I checked in and again realised that if I had only joined Hostelling International I would have saved 50% on the price.

Curitiba is a fairly normal city, on the small side with a lot of nice gardens and parks to explore. Unfortunately I only had about 12 hours in Curitiba and most of those were at night so I only had time for a quick walk through the park next to the hostel and to check out the homeless guys selling jewellery. I did make it back to the bacon sandwich shop where I struggled to make the guy understand what I wanted. Five months later and I'm still not sure what I said incorrectly but, boy, did it take a while to get that sandwich.

The next day I went back to the train station where I joined a bunch of Brazilian families headed to Paranagua for the Sunday. The train was wonderfully colourful and the trip was an instant hit when little packages of free food were handed out. We even had a tour guide on the 4 hour trip, albeit a portuguese-only one. So I had no idea what was going on but it was apparently very funny to the others in the car.

The ride was spectacular with panoramas of lush green valleys stretching back into misty mountains. We wound around steep curves and over precarious bridges with everyone hanging out of the windows. I'm glad I took the trip, a few backpackers I met in the Amazon had said it wasn't worth doing. Lies! All lies! Highly recommended should you find yourself in southern Brazil.

Paranagua is a nice little seaside town that could in fact have been in England if it wasn't for the absence of sticks of rock. Mmm... The weather was also British - rain, rain, rain. So I tried and failed to find a place to buy a boat ticket to Ilha do Mel from and instead headed to the bus station to arrange my ticket to Rio in 2 days. After much miming and many numbers written on pieces of paper I realised I had to buy a ticket to Curitiba from one company, then a ticket from Curitiba to Rio from another company. With this accomplished I returned to the waterfront to find a boat going to Ilha do Mel. Et voila! I saw a boat about to leave with a couple of other backpackers aboard and on I jumped.

And off we went...

Argentina and Itaipu Dam

Sat, 10 May 2008 12:51:51 GMT

Hey all,

Yes, this is a late post. I have, in fact, been back in Hawaii for a week but better late than never.

I set off for Argentina the next morning with another Brit backpacker, after changing 50R$ into Argentinian pesos. We had shunned our hostel's organised tour with the vague notion that between the two of us we could handle the bus systems and border control stations in two countries where we were, effectively, illiterate and mute. Happily, the number of people, Brazilians and backpackers alike, crossing the border each day was so great that the bus drivers and immigration officials were spectacularly efficient. The bus we caught in Brazil puttered up to the Brazilian border post where those leaving Brazil for more than a day disembarked. The rest of us continued to the Argentinian side. There we got off the bus and shuffled up to a line of immigration officers waiting to inspect our passports. I'm not exactly sure what the officer asked me but the Spanish reply "One day, waterfalls" seemed to suffice. With yet another page of my passport occupied I exited the border station and boarded the bus that had driven 50m along the side of the immigration building. The whole process took less than 5 minutes for the 30 people on board the bus. I'd like to point out that it usually takes ~60 minutes for a ferrener like me to get through US immigration. We were deposited in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, from here we caught a bus to the Iguazu Falls (note the change in spelling) park.

Luckily we had spoken to a Scottish couple at brekkie who warned us that Brazilian currency was not accepted at the park entrance, regardless of what all the tourist bumph was saying. So we made it into the park, past those hapless folks who had turned up with nothing but R$ in their pockets. The Argentinian side of the park was noticeably more organized with a train that ran throughout, a boat ride included in the entrance fee and handy maps available.

We spent most of the day hiking the trails that wind around the falls. The Argentinian side provided a closer view to the falls. We turned down multiple tour operators who were offering a boat trip to a section of the waterfall for 60R$. The people coming off the boat were VERY wet. Going back to Brazil sopping wet just didn't seem like fun to me. I will take a proper boat trip whenever I make it to Niagara Falls.

Martin hadn't yet seen monkeys in Brazil so we spent some time monkey-watching (a favourite hobby of mine) and were rewarded with the sight of 4 or 5 (insert species here) monkeys clambering through the rainforest that surrounds the falls.

We started to head back to Brazil once our leggies got tired, but not before buying a bunch of souvenirs at half the Brazilian price. Bargain. Upon arriving back in Foz do Iguacu we headed to a beer garden with a Brazilian traveller for, well, beer. Then Luiz took Martin and I to the most fantastic icecream place. Delicious.

I spent the next morning at Itaipu Dam - a massive hydroelectric power station that supplied 90% of Paraguay's power and 25% of Brazil's. I didn't have long to look around as I had to get back into town (and then out again to the airport) but it was a morning well spent. I had toyed with the idea of going to Paraguay but from other travellers' accounts the nearest town was simply a duty-free haven for Brazilians.

Next: a flight to Curitiba towards the coast, where I'll catch a train to Paranagua on the coast. Onwards and upwards.

Rach

The Brazilian side of Igaucu Falls

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:34:46 GMT

Hey all,

Quick post in the 9 remaining minutes of internet time. I got to Foz do Iguacu after a 16 hour bus ride. Mostly uneventful except it was frigging cold and I couldn't sleep despite wearing as many clothes as possible. I even wore shoes! So I arrive in Foz extremely tired but did bump into a couple of Frenchies that were in the Pantanal with me. I pointed them in the direction of my hostel, they beat me there since they took a taxi. I was brave and figured out the buses.

I dumped my stuff and headed off to the Brazilian side of the waterfalls (which are reputed to be better than Niagra). Have a quick google if, like me 2 months ago, you've never heard of Iguacu Falls. I paid the admission fee only to find that the park was touristastic and had more giftshops than Disneyland. Every trail started or ended with a tour company trying to sell you a boat ride or a giftshop.

Worse, it turns out some of the tour companies own the trails, meaning the 9km trail I had planned to hike would cost 135R$. Now, I can get a helicopter tour for less than that (40quid, 80USD) so I laughed in their faces and left. I should say that the falls (what I could see from the tiny trail that was free) were absolutely beautiful. Simply amazing. I'll post the pictures when I'm able but the sight was probably the best in Brazil so far.

Internet about to run out but will just say I left the falls pretty grumpy due to the ludicrous 135R$ charge for that trail. Day was saved by the discovery of a beer garden near the hostel. 4R$ for a giant beer (picture will follow some day) and 11R$ for bacon pizza. Wonderful.

Argentina tomorrow with another backpacker, maybe Paraguay. Later,

Rach

The Pantanal

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:25:05 GMT

Hey all,

This will be a bit of a garbled post, have already forgotten some things from the Pantanal, blame the beer.

The 5 hour bus ride to the Pantanal was mostly boring, I made some instant friends by sharing a packet of biscuits around the 8 backpackers on board. We then took a jeepy-thing to our accommodation. The camping part was awesome. A really relaxed, laidback place filled with interesting backpackers. All of us (between 10 and 15 depending on the day) slept in a big room with hammocks slung from wall to wall. We had two bats living in there, they ate the mosquitos which was good because the mozzies were vicious there. My ankles have still not recovered from the first night.

The first night was great, mostly because one of the Israelis had a guitar. We got a campfire going and passed the guitar around - why is it most backpackers can play guitar? No Jan, we did not sing kum by yah. Spelling?

On the first morning we went piranha fishing (sigh, again). This time I was more successful and caught two piranha and a catfish. The catfish was weirdlooking but quite delicious. The piranha tasted ok, since I don't normally eat fish I can only compare them to the catfish and they were worse. I tied with a Kiwi (James) in number of fish, Daniel (Israeli with guitar) didn't catch anything and vowed never to fish again. Our guide Sandro showed us how to clean the fish, quite icky but mega-fun! Then we handed them over to the cook for lunch.

We went horseriding for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Boy, was that stressful for the first 20 minutes. My horse was in fact a sheep that had to do whatever the other horses were doing. Unfortunately I was riding with more experienced people who rapidly galloped off into the distance. And off went my horse with me clinging to the saddle, trying not to drop my camera, shouting "Pare! Stop!" and commands in any other language I could think of. Happily, my horse (nicknamed Bastard) soon tired out and began to plod along at a much more amenable pace. Riding was good after that, although we didn't really see much wildlife.

Tuesday was a trekking sort of day. We spent a few hours walking in the morning, and then drove to a more remote location for more walkies in the afternoon. We saw a load of monkeys, armadillos, toucans, macaws and, most importantly, capybara. The capybara were cool, just like giant guinea pigs. I want one. We watched sunset as we drove back, spectacular again. Then the stars came out so everybody asked me questions and I had no idea which constellations were which since I was in the wrong hemisphere. So I made some stuff up. They'll never know...

That night James, myself and an Aussie called Daniel had a few too many drinkies and took our guide Sandro for a special tour of the Pantanal. I was the experienced tour guide since I had been in the Pantanal for almost 4 days by then. We showed him many things including the dangerous Brazilian woodsnake (looks and acts a lot like a stick). The boys and I didn't get to bed until 3am which was a mistake as James and I were leaving the next day and had many many hours on uncomfortable buses ahead.

Our final activity was floating down a river in rubber tubes - perfect for those nursing hangovers such as James, Daniel, Sandro and myself. As we reached the halfway point Sandro started shouting "Get out of the water!" So we swam to the bank and pulled ourselves out, wondering what was up and hoping it was something big and scary like a huge caiman (alligator). Turns out Sandro thought he had seen giant otters but in fact he saw a couple of girls from camp swimming. In a fight between a huge caiman and a giant otter, the giant otter would win, they're very aggressive apparently. Good to know because they look sort of cuddly.

My time in the Pantanal was amazing, mostly because of the people rather than the wildlife I went to see. The crowd was so chilled out, loads of fun to hang out and swap stories with. In particular, James and Daniel were great, we spent hours talking in the hammocks outside. I was sad to leave, but it was time to move on. Next stop: Foz do Iguaçu and Argentina.

Some photos have made it onto picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 but I'm paying extra to use a computer with available USB ports and will only spend another 10 minutes uploading. They'll make it eventually.

Rach

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:32:05 GMT

Hey all,

Hope you enjoyed the last mega-post. Don't get too used to it, I have left the comfort of Gero's office and am back in the world of paying for a bed.

This morning I met up with Rich for some business (exchanging USD for R$) before heading to a zoo with him. We took a wander around. I had seen most of the animals in the wild (except the manatees which are next to impossible to spot in the Amazon) but it was cool to have a look again. We saw a couple of monkeys that had somehow gotten out of their cages and were trying to get back in. They were climbing around the outside while their mates on the inside looked on in confusion. We spent a lot of our time with our heads craned upwards in the hope of seeing a sloth. Sloths are difficult to spot in the wild since they don't move much or make a lot of noise. Rich spotted what looked like a mudball stuck to a branch, we watched it for a few minutes and eventually a little head peeked out and had a look around. We watched the sloth for a while but, boy, those things are boring. It just hung there, occasionally moving its head, but not doing anything. So we went back to the manatees which were in a tank with a bunch of leaves - it looked like a giant soup was being prepared. Mmm manatee soup. They're not endangered, right?

Gero (tour operator guy) drove me to the airport after lunch (a pastry, cup of fried plantains, can of guarana and two yoghurt sweets -I love street vendors). I caught a few planes and am now in Campo Grande in the east of Brazil, towards the Paraguay and Bolivia border. Tomorrow I leave for 4 days of camping (with hammocks, a roof and food so not really camping, think there are even bathrooms). I think I get to go horse riding, on a jeep safari, a boat trip and piranha fishing again. It should be amazing. In theory, I get back on Wednesday night at 7pm which is good becausemy bus to Iguacu Falls leaves at 8pm. So I am going to get some much needed sleep, I arrived here at 11pm and leave tomorrow morning at 10am. Must also buy bus ticket tomorrow, hoping it will be cheap.

Thanks for the comments!

Rach

Off the boat!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:31:08 GMT

Hi all,

I am temporarily off the boat as we have a few hours in a town called Santarem. We are about 700-800km up the Amazon at this point, a little over half way I think. So far, the journey has been amazing. Tales of boring boat rides are spread by boring people who do not know how to make friends. Despite it being the low season, there were about 8 backpackers (mostly Brits, with a few others). The food is ok, the bathrooms are not that bad. I have to be quick or the boat will leave without me but highlights so far include listening to the little brazilian girl in the hammock next to me sing, watching the river dolphins jump about this morning, watching sunset and sunrise, climbing a sort-of-mast on the top deck with Rich (Brit backpacker) and having beers on the top deck by moonlight last night. Have seen some crazy birds, mostly ones that look like storks and vultures. Oh yeah, brushing my teeth with Amazon river water (pumped straight up from below the boat) is fun too. The water is VERY muddy. What diseases?

I have accidentally slung my hammock in the wrong class, meaning I am sans AC despite having paid for it. I could move but I like watching the little kids playing around my hammock. All the other gringos are upstairs. When I say I slung my hammock, I actually mean a Brazilian man called Carlos slung it for me. I was putting it up, thought I was doing an ok job until he pointed out it was twisted and wonky. But now it is good and very comfortable, although it was sort of crowded last night, all the hammocks were swinging and I kept (accidentally) kicking the little girl next to me in the head. Well, if she will sleep with her head hanging over the side.

I spend most of my day hanging out with my new friends and swapping travelling stories, or reading and sunbathing on the top deck. The weather is good, maybe 30degC+. Quite humid but who cares? Every lunch (usually rice, beans, spaghetti for some reason and meat) is followed by a happy nap in my hammock. I think I am going to cart it back to Hawaii but I am not sure where I could hang it.

Most of our gringo clan left this morning, they will continue to Manaus later this week. A few of us are left. Maybe more backpackers will have boarded by the time I get back. Now, I think I will find some sweeties in a supermarket (Fiona had the most awesome yoghurt flavoured sweets so I want some of those) and head back to the boat. Manaus, here I come.

Rach

You are crazy!

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:23:16 GMT

I spent most of last night talking to a Brazilian woman who has travelled to Belem to meet some friends and is staying in my hostel. She was a little annoyed at the state of the bathroom - shared with the men because the women's is under construction, there are no lights, and not enough space inside the cubicles to swing a dead cockroach, let alone a dead cat. I told her about my next step to Manaus by boat, her response was wide-eyed wonder at the thought of a lone female backpacker travelling 1500km up a river for 5 days, sleeping in a hammock. To me, that sounds fantastic but she was dubious. "You speak Portugues?" she asked. I held up my tiny phrasebook in reply. She burst out laughing. "You are crazy!"

I had brekkie with an English bloke who had just arrived from Salvador (further down the coast). He gave me a battered version of Papillion to read on the boat, I wish I hadn't left my old book in Rio so I could have given him something to read. I did point him in the direction of a couple of bookstores though. He is heading to Manaus on Friday.

I went to the waterfront market today, Velho de Peso (I think). It was incredible. There were all the normal stalls of umbrellas, t-shirts, PS2s, tv remotes, you name it, it was there. I bought a hammock for 25R$, I was so surprised at the cheap(ish) price that I forgot to haggle but no matter, seems decent. Then I stumbled across the food section. Wow! So many types of fruit and veg, a decent number of which I had never seen before. There was a whole section dedicated to various meat products as well as huge baskets of shrimp and various fish. Also, there was a medicinal bit, with all sorts of plants etc from the Amazon on sale. I wish I could have taken pictures but the market is notorious for thieves and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. The smells were the best anyway and it's hard to record those.

So now I must return to my hostel to see if my boat ticket has arrived. Then I need to pack up, check out and figure out how I will get to the boat (maybe a taxi, I have no idea if there is even a bus that goes in the right direction). Thanks for the comments. Sorry again for the lack of photos, this computer also has no USB port. Does still have a floppy drive though.

Tchau!

Rach

Made it to Belem!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:30:33 GMT

You might wonder why I am surprised. I bought my in-country airpass at the last minute (~10 days before leaving) from a random company I found on google, Easy Flight Center. I was more than a little suspicious of their authenticity but bought the tickets anyway, having failed to find another travel company that could get them winged over to Hawaii in time. It was a great relief to see today's ticket accepted without the agent looking at me as if I had just handed her monopoly money. The flight was even on time.

On board, I sat next to a very jolly Brazilian by the name of Victor. We got chatting (in English, thank goodness) about movies (Juno mainly), bands (we both have am affinity for Weezer and I told him to look up the Shins) and musical instruments. He pointed out a bunch of good places to go in Belem and seemed a little disappointed that I will only be spending 24 hours here. We shared a taxi into Belem since he lives close to my hostel.

This hostel is awesome, although on the expensive side at 38R$ per night (twenty something dollars). That said, I had expected to spend my afternoon walking around the Belem docks looking for a boat leaving for Manaus (1500km up the Amazon) tomorrow but the guy at the front desk booked my ticket instantly for a discounted price, saving me several hours in a dodgy neighbourhood. 220R$ for a hammock-space (I splurged and spent 20R$ extra to get space on the air conditioned deck). Not bad for 5 days' accommodation and food. Will be stocking up on snacks before I leave though. I think I have to get to the boat about 4 hours before it leaves to claim my space though.

Side-note: Brazilian bakeries are fantastic! So many cakes and pies and pastries and they're all good! I can't help going into each one I pass and buying something random. Will be stocking up on their biscuits before I leave.

Having sorted my next step, I wandered off to find a biological park (=fancy name for zoo) where I could see some of the flora and fauna of the Amazon. I really went there to see sloths climbing in the trees overhead - what did I not see? There were plenty of iguanas climbing around, weird birds in cages and crazy rat-bunny-things, no idea what they were. I would post a picture so someone can google it for me but this computer is so old it doesn't have a USB port.

Then I went wandering through Belem, which is a gorgeous town with colourful colonial-style buildings, although it's a little rough in places. I did read of mugging at knife-point on one traveller's blog and Victor told me he saw someone get shot in a dodgy part of town. With this in mind, I was back in the hostel by nightfall. It had also started to rain, properly hard. Guess that's the jungle weather for you.

So tomorrow I must buy a hammock (there's a big market on the waterfront I want to check out) and catch my boat to Manaus. I might manage to post tomorrow, otherwise I'll be back next week!

Rach

Rio day 2

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:02:58 GMT

Oi!

The weather was slightly better during daylight today, although it's pouring now (10pm).

I spent most of this morning wandering around Ipanema and Copacobana searching for somewhere to exchange my devalued dollars. There are a load of banks around here that can apparently exchange money but this can be a real hassle if you don't have an account with them, which I don't. So I wandered for a couple of miles into Copacobana after failing to find the "several cambios" along some Ipanema street advertised by Lonely Planet. Eventually I found a sign for one that pointed down the dodgiest, dingyist (sp?) corridor I've ever seen outside a horror film. To add to the creepyness, a solitary guy stood at the end, not moving, not saying a word. But I needed Reals so down the corridor I went. Luckily for me there was a cambio at the end, with an exchange rate of 1.65R$ per dollar. Thanks George Bush, you made this so much more expensive. But anyway, it's better than the 1.4R$ per USD I got from Travelex on my way through Atlanta. So I swapped a vast sum of money and half expected an armed gang to be waiting in the corridor when I came out, but it was empty, save for the silent creepy guy.

After dumping most of the money back at the hostel (yey padlocks) I wandered off to have a look at a lake a few blocks from my hostel. It was surrounded by people biking, running and generally being healthy, even guys in suits were exercising. Weirdos. I wandered half-way around (~4km I think) then got bored. The giant Jesus had been towering above me during my walk so I decided to catch a bus to the train that would take me to the top of that hill. How hard can that be? Well... I had the bus numbers from a hostel employee, unfortunately those are the buses that leave from near my hostel. The buses that left from the area I was now in had completely different numbers. After waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes and not seeing a single bus that had anything close to my destination of choice I plucked up the courage to test my terrible Portuguese on a woman. She did understand which was a plus and waved her arms at the other side of the street. Ok, I thought, off I go. Wandered to a bus stop over there, again failed to see any bus that might be going in my direction. Then I realised she had been waving her arms quite vigorously and thought maybe she meant me to go several streets over to the main road. Aha! Several buses per minute were passing through although I still couldn't find one with Corcodova or the Portuguese translation of "Giant Jesus" on the front. It was at this point that I envied those on package tours, I was jealous of the tourists who simply have to stumble down to the hotel lobby at the right time to make it to their sightseeing destinations. Then I realised I was being a wimp and tried to snap out of it, lest I find myself eating McDonalds and only speaking English for the rest of the trip. So finally, I recognised the name of a road nearby the train station for the giant Jesus, jumped on board, checked with the driver and off we went.

The train went up through what little is left of Atlantic rainforest around Rio, it was pretty impressive until the clouds killed the view. I was hoping to see monkeys again but they must have been hiding. Up the top were the predictable hundreds of tourists (yes, I know I count as one) and a giant Jesus. No, dad, he did not have steps inside him.

I took the obligatory photos (see picasaweb.google.com/rach150384) and took the train back to Cosme Velho, where I caught a bus back to Ipanema. Actually, I caught a bus to Copacobana because I got off too early (I hate buses). But that detour took me past a bakery where I bought something that looked like a ham and cheese pastry but had random other things in it too. I have no idea what it was or what it was called, I like to just point and order. I munched on that as I walked quickly back (it was getting dark and Rio is not too safe).

I had hoped to make a foray into the National Park where some good hiking trails go through the rainforest but the bus-kerfuffle knocked a couple of hours out of my day, as did the exchange-kerfuffle. So maybe I will do that on the way back. I'm off to Belem in the northeast tomorrow (in theory at least), from there I plan to catch a boat up the Amazon for 5 days (1500km) to Manaus. Find out how the plan goes awry tomorrow...or the day after or maybe in a week depending on t'internet access.

Rach

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:26:12 GMT

(I tried to post this yesterday but the internet here is too slow to do it within 30 minutes. Some pics may have made it onto picasaweb.google.com/rach150384). Now on attempt #4 of trying to post this goddamn thing.)

Oi,

Still can't get used to saying oi as a greeting, I keep saying ola instead. I am here, fine and dandy. A little tired from lack of sleep over the past few nights (two of them have been on very cold planes and I forgot to take socks on board) but nothing 7 hours of sleep tonight won't fix. All three flights were delayed at some point but I still got to Rio just 30 minutes late. I brushed off the 20 people trying to get me to pay 70R$ for a taxi and found the correct bus to the hostel. I did, as predicted, miss my bus stop but actually overshot it by half a mile. Thank goodness I packed light.

As we came out from the airport, we passed what I initially mistook for derelict buildings then I noticed the signs of life around them - laundry hanging between crumbling walls, kids running through the narrow streets. I'm not sure if that was just a poor neighbourhood or if that was one of the favelas. It was a sobering first sight of Rio.

Found the youth hostel at about 10am and was told my bed wouldn't be ready until 1pm and I could use the internet if I wanted to while away my time. While away my time? I've only got a few days here, I'm not going to waste daylight hours on the internet. I left my backpack at the hostel figuring backpackers have a reputation for being smelly and dirty (I hadn't showered for over two days at this point) so no-one would be surprised by the grungy English girl wandering around.

I set off along Ipanema beach. That's the closest beach to my hostel. It was surprisingly empty since it's supposed to be one of Rio's most popular beaches. I'm blaming that on the weather which was overcast and drizzling slightly. The beach was nice enough, lots of volleyball games going on, as well as some decent surfing at one end. I then wandered over to Copocabana which was gringo-tastic. Then I took noticed cable cars trundling perilously between hills in the distance, took a quick look at lonely planet and found I was fairly close to Sugarloaf Mountain - two hills that are connected by cable cars for no good reason that I can tell. But off I went like a good tourist. I paid a whopping 35R$ for a ticket to the top, although it was cloudy. Something tells me I'll be waiting a long time if I hold out for good weather before doing the fun stuff. I predict the view would be fantastic on a clear day, on a cloudy day it was ok from the first hill and non-existent from the second. But to make up for it, there were little wild monkey things climbing around(how did they come to be only on the one hill?). So that made my day. I also saw a guy with some gibbon-type thing, pimping it out to the tourists so they could pay to have their photos taken with it. I frowned and moved on - most of our animals in Thailand were abused in similar ways by the tourist trade.

So I wandered back to my hostel, stopping at a kiosk to grab a coconut drink. Pick your coconut, pay 2R$, they hack its top off for you et voila! A drink! What was that thing the doctor said about eating raw fruit from street vendors? I forget...

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 or something like that. Will post again from Belem where hopefully the internet access is a bazillion times faster.

Tchau,

Rach

I'm outta here!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:02:04 GMT

Hi all,

Welcome to my first Brazil post. I'm off to Brazil tomorrow for a four-week vacation from Hawaii (this place just wears you down). Why Brazil? Couldn't tell you. I've had some justification for the other backpacking trips I've taken - I went to Costa Rica because I made the mistake of thinking Jurassic Park was filmed there and thought it looked cool (I later found out the movie was filmed in Hawaii); went to Thailand when google told me I could afford to spend 6 weeks playing with monkeys in an animal rescue shelter and still spend 3 weeks backpacking; and I spent 24 hours on a greyhound bus just to see the Hollywood sign, although I did make a stop at Universal Studios - best theme park ever. But I'm not really sure why I'm off to Brazil. Part of the reason might be that my housemates and I have blank maps stuck on each of our doors, we colour in each country we've been to and Brazil is a big 'un to get. Of course, there's all that stuff like tropical rainforest with giant anteaters, sloths and tapirs, swamps with herds of capybara and beautiful beaches. Another reason is that the plane ticket was just $1070, pretty good when you take a look at a map and realise just where Hawaii is.

I'm currently sat in my room with rather a small pile of belongings to take. I plan to take a half-full backpack given that I will misjudge my bus-stop in Rio de Janeiro out of fear of shooting past my hostel and will have to walk 2 miles in 35 degree heat. I am fully kitted out for my trip however and can boast a full first aid kit (no thermometer though, mum!), tiny tubes of toothpaste, 16 AA batteries and a tiny MP3 player I like to call Pinky. I am rather proud of Pinky - $30 for a 1GB MP3 player. It's even got a speaker. I still need to finishing filling Pinky up with the essentials. Essential music will include a selection of Ben Harper, Elliot Smith, Elvis, The Smiths and Billy Joel. I think Pinky will be one of the best things I've bought for this trip. I would only be happier if I could figure out a way to take my guitar. Seriously tempted to buy one before taking a 5-day, 1500km boat trip up the Amazon. Pinky's batteries will only last so long.

I'm looking forward to being on the road again. The last proper trip I did was Thailand which was amazing - my Thai travel blog is somewhere below this one. No more internet, no more ipod, no more cellphone. My god, no more google, no more youtube. Hmm. How will I entertain myself? Better find one of those book things (actually already picked it, On the Road by Jack Kerouac).

Things I plan to do on this trip:

Sleep in a hammock while travelling up the Amazon
See pink river dolphins
Catch a piranha then eat its face off
See a herd of Capybara in the Pantanal (east Brazil)
Go to Argentina for a day
Run off a cliff with a Brazilian (hang-gliding)
Poke a caiman (alligator)

Things I do not plan to do:

Catch dengue fever
Lose a vital document
Lose a finger to a piranha
Plummet from a cliff with or without a Brazilian

I think that about sums it up. Now I must get back to packing or, more importantly, whittling down my list of possible songs to put on Pinky.

Rach

Disclaimer: Words will not always be spelled correctly. If you are American, there will be many Us, Ls and Ss that you think are superfluous - they are not. There will be little to no grammar and/or punctuation at times. My younger brother always says bad handwriting makes letters last longer, I am assuming the same goes for poor spelling etc. If I am excited when I write, there will also be no obvious structure to the post, nor any indication that I have thought about what I am going to write. If you would like to read something more eloquent, please hunt down my older brother's travel blog at www.sorryforthegroupemail.com. Units used will be metric, imperial or made-up. There will be no consistency.

Leaving on a jetplane

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:13:23 GMT

Ello.

Went up the Golden Mount or something like that yesterday with Laura. There were good views of Bangkok although the skyline isn't particularly interesting. Did some souvenir shopping in the afternoon and mooched about. Met up with Laura and Tim (from Australia) for dinner and drinks. Tim and I decided we wanted to see the legal proper Pirates of the Caribbean 2 so we set about trying to find out where the local cinema was. In the end we asked a lady who works at my guesthouse and after miming "big screen" she understood and wrote down the address in Thai so we could show it to the taxi driver. So off we went and ended up in this big mall which was just like every other mall around the world. We ended up getting VIP tickets (4 quid) which meant we got to sit in a cushty little lounge before the movie started. There's a whole VIP theatre so none of the regular riffraff were in there. The VIP seats are basically massive armchairs. You get a pillow and blanket (the aircon is a bit manic) plus a little table between the two of you. And there's so much leg room it's crazy. The seat in front was at least 1.5m away.

So we saw the movie (not as good as the first) and got lost trying to get out of the mall which, surprisingly, was deserted at midnight. It was like something from a horror movie complete with bumps in the night. We ended up walking around the parking lot following cars out onto the road.

Not much planned for today, have exhausted Bangkok's sightseeing possibilities and am a bit broke. Off to the airport at 4pm which is way too early but there weren't any other shuttles available and I can't be bothered with the buses. Might do some more shopping to use up my last few hundred baht.

Think I've spent enough money on the internet now so am going to pay and wander off. Maybe I'll get some breakfast. Later gators,

Rach

SHOPPING!

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 09:35:15 GMT

Hola,

I arrived in Bangkok at 5am this morning a bit bleary eyed after the world's coldest bus ride. Luckily I did have a good-looking guy sitting next to me so we just fell asleep on each other for most of the ride. Managed to get a taxi to somewhere near Khao San Road with two other backpackers and wandered along trying to find a room. The first few places I went to were full (it is the weekend after all) but luckily I came across a decent place with a room for just 150baht (2 quid or something). No flushing toilet, no hot water, no private bathroom so not as good as my old place in Chiang Mai but it's as expected so it's fine. So I got a couple of hours sleep then wandered off into Bangkok with the intention of heading to China Town to explore then going to Bangkok's biggest weekend market at Chukaskaskrtyak Park. Ok, that may not be the official spelling.

I bumped into a volunteer from the wildlife centre as I was wandering out of Khao San Road so we stopped and had a smoothie. Laura was looking for another volunteer who had said to meet up but Helen didn't show up so Laura came with me to China Town (waste of time, nothing there but car part dealers) and the market. The market was good, it was much cheaper than the market stalls in the centre of Bangkok. It took a bit of effort to get there. We walked to China Town thinking there was a subway station there. There wasn't. So we got a tuktuk to the train station and got on the subway there. About a zillion stops later (yes, a zillion) we got to Chuksadkjsahdkj Park and wandered off to find the market. Unfortunately we started walking in the wrong direction. We asked a random guy on the street ("Many farang this way?") and got a blank stare so we asked the wonderful people at 7-11 who pointed us in the right direction. If in doubt, ask someone who works at 7-11. We got there eventually, found a place that advertised food in English, we weren't feeling adventurous by this point. We had a good wander around, it was a bit like Camden market but a WHOLE lot cheaper. Loads of punk stalls. Was very tempted, may have to return with a pile of cash and an empty backpack at some point in the future. Bought some souvenirs then we headed back as we both needed a nap. Which I am forfeiting at this moment to enlighten you all about my adventures. Actually I was on my way to try to sell my book so I can buy a new one and got sidetracked. I've just discovered that I can listen to music through youtube.com so I think I might be spending the rest of the afternoon in here.

I'm meeting up with Laura for dinner and drinks later. Tomorrow I'm planning to wander up a hill that gives good views of Bangkok. Apart from that, nothing planned. Might see what Laura and Helen are up to. Tim from Aussieland arrives in Bangkok tomorrow so I'm meeting up with him in the evening. Might go to the Floating Market with him on Monday before my flight leaves in the evening but it's far (>100km) and probably expensive (ie more than 5 pounds) to get to so I might not bother.

Peace out,

Rach

Wat, wat, wat, wat, wat

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:18:53 GMT

Hello hello,

I've been wandering around a lot of temples recently, they're everywhere in Chiang Mai. There's one opposite my guesthouse, another 20m down the road and another one just behind. It all gets a bit samey after a while, lots of gold statues of Buddha, lots of murals. So am a bit bored with temples. That said, I did go to one at the top of a mountain (Doi Suthep) today and that was good. About 700 years ago the king put a relic on the back of a white elephant and said they would build a temple where the elephant stopped. I'm guessing they didn't expect the elephant to climb the nearest mountain. Probably wasn't convenient for delivering the building materials.

After that I asked my taxi driver (I sort of accidentally chartered a songthaew (taxi thing) for the day) to take me to one of the tribal hill villages that are dotted around Chiang Mai. This one was quite touristy, as you would expect only 6km from one of Thailand's most visited temples. I paid 10baht to see the museum and to be taken to the opium fields by a 7 year old. Well, she may have been 6. There were loads of tribal craft-y things on sale, bags, clothes, carvings etc. Didn't buy anything because I'm moving a jolly long way around the world and the less I have to carry the better. Why didn't I remember at the night market two days ago?

After that my driver took me to Chiang Mai zoo and arboretum. I had a wander around but it was a bit of a let down. Silly lonely planet. My lonely planet book also only quoted the Thai admission price. The farang admission is over 3 times the Thai price. Grrr. Didn't spend long there, got another taxi back to the centre of Chiang Mai. And am now sitting in an internet cafe. Bet that's a surprise.

I'm off to Bangkok in a couple of hours. Have bought a ticket from the nice people at my guesthouse for just 350baht (5GBP) instead of a government bus ticket for 550baht, the bus arrives near Khao San Road which is much more conveniently located than the government bus station. I'm guessing it arrives at about 4am which doesn't seem so great but hey, Bangkok's a city and there'll be streetlights. And a million people trying to get me in their taxi. Hopefully I can figure out where Khao San Road is and just walk. Most of the guesthouses along there are open 24 hours.

And that's my boring entry. Be back soon!

Me

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:26:28 GMT

I would update this properly but it's raining and I'm hungry. Taxi, bus station, minivan, transfer to proper bus, arrive Chiang Mai 5am, go with first taxi driver seen to guesthouse, sleep, oreos for breakfast, temple, temple, park, buy pineapple from guy selling it off the back of his truck, new Jodi Picoult book, nap, mars bar, internet. Next: Chiang Mai night bazaar and dinner.

Love

Rach

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:00:28 GMT

Hola,

Today was a very random day. I checked out of my little guesthouse/internet cafe/massage parlour/shop this morning and started walking in the general direction of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kraew (or something like that). I got somewhat lost but didn't mind as I was wandering past lots of street vendors selling breakfast and generally just seeing Bangkok. Soon learnt to deal with traffic one lane at a time - i.e. get across one lane then think about having to cross another so I was just standing in the middle of the road a lot of the time. I finally got to a place I recognized and realised I was going in completely the wrong direction. So I did a U-turn and got to what I thought was the river on my map, I did think it was a bit pathetic looking, nothing like the Thames. Turns out it was a little canal but no matter, I got where I was trying to go. I saw a shiny gold building surrounded by farang and Thai people trying to sell them things so concluded I had arrived at the Grand Palace. In I went and started walking around. It's basically a lot of temple-y looking buildings with some very good murals painted on the inside of the walls surrounding the place. As I was walking around I noticed a monk, although not a Thai monk, wandering around. He was dressed the same way as Thai monks (robes and sandals) but had darker skin. He came up to me later and asked me what I thought of the temples in Thailand. I was a bit shocked, women aren't allowed to talk to monks unless they start the conversation but that's very unusual. Monks also aren't allowed to touch women, they have to go through a 7-day cleansing ritual if they do, or something like that. So I said something polite and we kept talking. I felt a bit priveliged walking around the Grand Palace with a monk, everyone was looking at us. He was from Sri Lanka and was just travelling in Thailand. So we talked for about an hour about Sri Lanka, England, Thailand etc then he asked if I wanted to have lunch. Now that's very unusual. A Thai monk would probably never be seen having lunch with regular folk, let alone a woman. But off we went to get lunch. The great thing about walking with a monk is that the crowds part before them. Monks are very highly respected in Thailand so people move out of the way. Women move especially quickly. At one point a woman realized she was in his way (and mine too but I'm not sure she cared so much about that) and bowed to him. He was a little surprised, public attitude towards monks in Thailand is very different to that in Sri Lanka. About half-way through lunch he realised that we were getting strange looks.

While we were walking to a restaurant he told me about how he had meditated for 3 years and now he knows the world truth. I wanted to ask him what that was but wasn't sure if it's something that only monks are allowed to know and regular people aren't allowed in on the secret. Luckily he volunteered the information. And so, here it is. Here's the world truth:

"Everything vanish"

Or possibly everything spanish, but I think he meant everything vanish.

"Your bag, vanish."

I clutch my bag at this point as it contains my passport, flight tickets and debit card.

"My bag vanish. My finger vanish. One day, the world vanish."

So that's it. The world truth. He also told me, "everything sad". Seems like a bit of a depressing religion, but perhaps he was just down as he wasn't getting much support from the local temples in Bangkok. Normally visiting monks are given a place to stay etc, but this hadn't happened for him.

I was panicking a bit just before lunch. I was trying to remember all the etiquette-type stuff pertaining to monks. Don't point your feet at them....don't touch them...and? Also couldn't remember if there's anything they don't eat. Monks are supposed to value all nforms of life so does that make them vegetarian? I hope not because I ordered chicken and rice then, because he couldn't read the menu, he just said "same as her". He spoke English reasonably well (definitely better than I speak Sanskrit) but couldn't read it very well. He paid the bill (I did offer), felt a bit guilty about that. However much I complain about student salaries, I'm pretty sure he was earning less. Then he said he wanted to get me a present. Now in Thailand it's very rude to refuse a gift, in Sri Lanka, I'm not so sure. So he insisted and we wandered off through the parting crowds looking for a Buddha statue (think he might have been trying to convert me). The only Buddha statues he could find were Indian Buddhas. Indian Buddhas are the very very fat Buddhas with man-breasts and a big Buddha-belly. Thai Buddhas are skinnier and have funny hair. So we couldn't find one of those and in the end he bought me an elephant. And he got 2/3 of the price knocked off. All for being a monk. The lady said she usually charges 300 baht but for him it was 200 baht. He said 100 baht and whaddya know? It's suddenly 100. I wish I could haggle that much off everything. The power of monks, eh?

So I left my new friend Siri the monk in the middle of a market by the river. I wandered off to Wat Pho. Wat means temple, it can lead to some very funny conversations with taxi drivers.

You take me to Temple?
Wat?
Temple.
Wat?
TEMPLE.
Wat?
TEMPLE!

And so on, The massive reclining Buddha is at Wat Pho, it's 46m long and something meters high. I didn't memorise the flyer about it. There are also loads of statues in other parts of the temple, well worth a look. I got some good photos and will ve forcing you all the look at them sometime soon. After Wat Pho I tried to get to a park just north of where I stayed last night but got there too late and it had closed. Might go back at the weekend. So then I came back to Khao San road, had some streetvendor food (noodles, springroll and sweetcorn, a whopping 65p), delicious. Or a-roi as they say here. And now I really must dash, got to get a taxi/tuktuk to the bus station. Hopefully I'm off to Chiang Mai tonight. Here's hoping there's a ticket left for me.

Mum, will check email tomorrow. Ditto to Viv. Hope all is well everywhere,

Rach, the enlightened one.

Bangkok

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:53:19 GMT

I'm in Bangkok as I missed the last bus to Chiang Mai tonight. Lindsey and I left Ko Tao this morning. She's now gone off to her airport hotel, she flies home to the States tomorrow.

We arrived in Bangkok somewhere close to Khao San Road, which is the main touristy street. It's sort of like Oxford Street but just aimed at tourists. I wasn't sure exactly how close we were so I said goodbye to Lindsey and paid 40baht for a taxi there. Turns out I was about a 5min walk so paid too much for the taxi. The guy also didn't actually take me to Khao San road. I mentioned I was looking for a room so he took me to a guesthouse where I assume he was paid on commision for every tourist he delivered there. It was too expensive for me so I ended up walking around with my backpack for 15 minutes trying to find another place to stay. I wasn't having much luck until I came across the real Khao San road which has lots of little guest houses along it. I really needed to pee so I stopped at the first sign I saw. At first it seemed to be a shop, then I found the side-stairs which lead up to an internet cafe then there are more stairs which lead to a massage parlour then there are more stairs which finally lead to the rooms. I'm right above the street which is cool, there are two single beds crammed into the room, one for my backpack (now named Barry) and one for me. There's also a fan which is probably more important to me than the beds.

So I paid for my room, peed, found my wallet and camera and wandered out onto the street. I've just been wandering around for a while, had a meal from a street vendor, very cheap (45p). Now I'm sitting in an internet cafe talking to my mum on MSN and updating this so you can all read it EVEN THOUGH YOU NEVER COMMENT.

I'm off to Chiang Mai tomorrow night, the bus takes 11 hours. I'll be there probably until Friday night at which point I may try to get a train back, depending on how expensive it is. Then I'll be staying in Bangkok until I fly away on Mon.

Those who want postcards had been send me your addresses very soon. See some of you in 8 days!

Rach

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:09:56 GMT

Hola,

So...Rich and Liesel left yesterday, Skye left this morning. Our little perfect bungalow has been rented out to someone else. I'm crashing with Lindsay on a different beach for two nights, then we're off to Bangkok. Went to a bar with loads of beanbags for Rich and Liesel's last night, it was very chilled. Drank rum and coke out of little buckets, then did gibbon, macaque and bear impressions.

Went snorkelling all day today. Went with a tour-type thing that goes to 5 points around the island. Picked it primarily for the first two stops which were called "Shark Point" and "Shark Island". Guess which two got cancelled due to big waves? Hmm. So went to the first stop, swam away, started poking at things. Well, okay, not poking since touching the coral is a no-no and if you poke the sea-cucumbers they excrete gunk and look like they're exploding. So I swam away from the boat and started swimming through shoals of fishies which is very fun. Then I saw a beeg shoal and started to swim through that one, then I saw a BEEG fish below the shoal and then I thought, hang on, that's a SHARK! And I got to swim with a shark anyway. It was a little (1.5m) black-tipped reef shark and was very cool. Didn't poke it though. Saw lots of fishies, clams, also saw a water snake. Lots of fun and I'm very glad I got to swim with a shark. None of that underwater-cage business either.

Tonight...going to find a movie and chill during dinner. Have moved beaches. Manage to halve the price of my taxi ride by asking a group of taxi drivers for a ride, they all tried to compete against each other for the lowest fare. I ended up getting the standard fare instead of the "lets-rip-off-the-farang" fare.

Can't really remember what else has happened, had a chilled day Friday, took some naps (yes, multiple). I've become famous for my amazing ability to nap anywhere, anytime. Liesel has a series of pictures of me sleeping, from on a rock to the beach to a restaurant. She missed an opportunity when I slept on the porch one night as it was too hot in the bungalow. Annie and Laura (volunteers from centre) are arriving tomorrow so I'll chill with them, then I'm off to Chiang Mai on Monday.

Ok, enough babbling. I'll do enough of that when I get back. Take care, have fun,

Rach

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:25:04 GMT

Just a quick entry. I'm sure you all know that Indonesia is quite far from Thailand but for those worrying about tsunamis, I'm fine. Nothing unusual going on here. Skye's mum was freaking out a bit so just thought I'd let you all know I'm fine.

Weather is absolutely gorgeous. Really am in paradise, living in small bungalow on the beach, turquoise waters over the sand and dark blue over the coral. Lots of coconut trees along the beach, all of the guides to Ko Tao say not to sleep under them as you may get knocked on the noggin.

Going kayaking again this afternoon, probably taking snorkelling gear with us. Going to kayak to nearby island. Skye and Liesel are going to chill this morning, think I'm going to walk somewhere random on the island, unless I can convince Rich to give me a ride.

Liesel rented a moped yesterday which was very funny to watch. Skye thought that I had the worst deal - being on the back of Rich's bike - but she changed her mind when she saw Liesel drive into a bush. We made it up a dirt track to try to find some caves and a whale skeleton. No problems finding the whale skeleton, although what it's doing half-way up a 1000ft hill I'm not quite sure. The caves were a little trickier. There was a sign saying talk to Mr Thalin before you trek to the caves but we couldn't find him and honestly, how hard can it be to find caves on a hillside? Well... We spent a happy hour walking around rainforest with no water and almost made it to the top of the hill. I'll show some of you the photos because it was just amazing. We had good views of bays and islands next to Ko Tao. The only thing that spoiled it a bit was the constant sound of motorboats but that's what you get for staying on a diving-mad island.

My travel plans have changed again, I'm not in any rush to leave here. Instead of leaving with Rich, Skye and Liesel on Fri I'm probably going to stay until Monday and then go to Chiang Mai. Honest. It's so beautiful here! Another volunteer from the centre, Lindsay (my third roommate), is arriving on Ko Tao today and then Laura and Annie are arriving on Saturday.

Hope all is well everywhere,

Rach