martineandstu

Wedding 28th August 2010

2009-11-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

If you are looking at this you must have been a reader in the past and we are very grateful that you shared our journeys with us. If you are now looking for our wedding website you can find it at:

http://sites.google.com/site/stuartandmartine/

See you in Scotland

Stuart and Martine

Back in Luxembourg

2007-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Well, that´s it. After a year off work Martine and I have returned to Luxembourg. We have had a brilliant year and spent the last couple of days expecting something to go wrong. We thought we had hit our bad luck when the plane thumped down on the runway in San Paulo, but I guess the pilot just wanted to be sure we stopped before the end. We even managed to change airports in London with amazing ease and the weather was fine when we arrived home. Of course, that didn´t last long, but we were very happy to return safe and sound.

After a week in the same place now, it seems rather strange not to be packing our rucksacks and jumping on a bus. We have even returned to the modern world by buying new mobile phones (same numbers as before) and I (Stuart) have dressed smartly every day. Martine has been able to use a hairdryer and confine her hiking books to a dark corner of the room.

So, just in case you enjoyed our blog as much as we did, thank you very much for enjoying it with us and we look forward to reading yours.

Stuart and Martine

PS: Next summer we´re off to Scandanavia-can´t wait.

Boca atmosphere

2007-08-14T04:43:00.001-07:00

Click on the icon to go to Youtube

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

2007-08-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

Click on the icon to go to Youtube

El Gaucho

2007-08-13T17:41:00.001-07:00

Thank you!!

El Gran Finale- Estancia

2007-08-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

As the Big Final, I had kept my voucher for the cowboy experience, to be cashed at the El Teruno Estancia, Colonia, Uruguay. We were a little apprehensive at first, so the experience would have to be quite special. El Torruno is excellent though, within seconds you felt transported to Our Little Farm: fireplace in your room, gauchos running around in funny trousers and hats, lots of horses, cows, donkeys, austriches, sheep, and the whole thing nicely grilled for dinner in the evening.

Nothing had prepared us for the ultimate Little Farm experience: we were invited to take a horse and carriage for a ride, ON OUR OWN. You can imagine the excitement and the panic, but thankfully, Stu has watched enough cowboy movies over the years to do a great job. When he got carried away singing cowboy songs and shouting 'EEEEhaaa!', the horse took off in a gallop and spun us around the farm...that hat has obviously had its effects over the months... We had a great time and forced ourselves to leave after three days. Stu was quite happy in some respect as my hands wouldn't smell of cow anymore as I had taken to miking the cows. A very, well natural, experience.

Barbed wire,Vomit,Spit,Dope and NOT Robbed

2007-08-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

If you hadn't guessed from the title Martine and I went to another football match here in BA. This time we didn't go to see River Plate as their game was cancelled due to one of their main hooligans being killed which sparked a turf war among gangs. Apparently the hooligans control the ticket allocation, drinks and food sold in the ground and parking around the stadium, so it'a all big money. Anyway, this time we went to Estadio Diego Armando Maradona which is home to Argentinos (this was Maradona's first club and he help pay for the stadium) who were hosting the mighty Boca Juinors (the club Maradona became famous with and who won the equivalent of the Champions League this year). At first, we were led in to the home end and placed (with about 100 other tourists) next to the where the local hooligans were arriving and sat down to watch a reserve game before the big match. However, a very stupid tourist cheered for Boca when their reserves scored and Police swiftly moved us to the Boca end of the ground before the rest of the home support arrived. Our guide was already worried about our first seating position and was visibly more worried now. So after our third body search we entered the away end of the stadium and our guide wisely moved us away from the other tourists and near the only policeman we saw nearby during the match. So with standing room only, in an area surrounded by fences with barbed wire and amongst the constant smell of dope we watched the game. Well as best we could - Martine couldn't see the goal to the left as seven men aged 20 to 50 were standing on a metal barrier in order to encourage the crowd to sing. This encouragement involved shouting at you if you didn't sing and being spat on. We wondered why the people who were spat on didn't retaliate, but they were probably put off by his badly bleached hair, shiny tracksuit and the fact that where the others on the barrier had to hold on to a flag to keep their balance he had some little serf to hold him up (who stood directly below him and couldn't have seen a moment of the action). In case you are wondering we weren't spat on as I sang all the words that went "OOH...DEE...DAE...DAA...OIH" and Martine was so squashed she had no choice but do bounce about with the best of them.

Well, the game and atmosphere was fantastic. Argentinos won 3-2 in a thrilling match even though their Manager was sent off and the atmosphere was brilliant even though someone sitting on the wall at the back of the crowd vomited onto the fans and the club flag (causing a rush forward in the crowd as if a goal had been scored - luckily it happened 2 metres to left of us).

However, we found out after the game had finished that we were luckier than we first thought. As soon as the game finished our guide took us towards the police (who had now arrived in the stand) and waited for the rest of the fans to leave. Martine was already suspicious of two men who were earlier pointing at her and as we followed the water canon out of the stadium the guide told us that the Boca hooligans had robbed the other tourists of their cameras and money at half time. I think we'll stick to St.Johnstone...

Montevideo, Uru-where?

2007-08-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our return to Luxembourg, we thought visiting a small country will get us back in the mood, so after Brazil, we headed to Uruguay. With only 3.5 million inhabitants, we were welcomed very warmly, given that they had finally found out more about a nation that made them seem really big. And with 13 million cows and 11 million sheep, you can't say noone lives here, you must only be careful the cows don't start a revolution, cos then the Uruguayans would have to run fast... Cows are on the menu everywhere here: parilla, asado, leather gloves, leather jackets, cow skins as carpets and the whole thing accompanied with delicious local wine or their mate tea that everyone drinks all day long. We love Uruguay and especially Montevideo: it's small, green, clean, quiet, it's cheap, and they put the sun on display for the first cold days that we were here, very nice.

Uruguay is, however, also the country of contrasts. If you live around the beach or the old centre and you're around 30, you're most likely to have a good education, speak English, most probably have university education, and a job that pays about 250 Euros a month, which also means that you're probably thinking of joining the other 50 000 Uruguayans who leave their country every year to live in some other promised land.

If you live in the outskirts, and you are 30, you are most likely to have had about 5 to 7 children, have a tin shelter as a house and not good primary education. Your husband may be one of the men collecting rubbish in town with the horse carriage, separate it and sell it to make some money, and you're most likely not to regard a kitchen, bathroom, a medical or teeth as a normal part of your life.

After spending the first week in the glossy area of Montevideo, we spent the second part of our stay with an NGO in the slums, and learned a fair bit.

NGO in Montevideo

2007-08-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

Whilst in Montevideo, Martine and I visited an NGO which is partly funded by a Catholic organisation in Luxembourg. So being good Catholics (stop laughing) we visted a Community Centre/Soup Kitchen/After School Club/Health Centre/Family Advice...in an area made up of a mixture of metal shacks and concrete houses. The main source of employment is from refuge collection/recycling. Basically, the fathers and sons go around the the city on horse and cart collecting rubbish, take it home, separate it and sell it to the recycling plant. The families are often quite large and usually share one to two rooms with no heating, insulation, hot water etc. However, when we visted some of the families at home we were always given a warm welcome and the people didn´t seem to mind us looking at them with our jaws and eyes wide open at all. I really thought I had seen it all after visiting some of the worst council houses in the Stirling area, but this blew me away. Indeed, things are so bad there, the swimming pool blew away 2 years ago which the Centre took the children to 3 times a week (with no hot water and freezing houses the desire to wash every day is understandably low in some families). It has not been replaced and the people at the Centre miss it dearly...

So to give you more of an idea of what the Centre do, they: give health advice to expecting mothers (we met one aged 14, but most start far later - 15 to 18); give the children some informal education in computing, cooking, knitting, dancing and soon carpentry; provide free breakfast, lunch and dinner for those attending and on Fridays they provide food for all the families who want it (500 people a day during the recession). Some children arrive with a 5 litre plastic paint pot and use the Centre´s take-away service, while other families eat-in. As you can imagine it is all a bit tragic when you see all this, but I couldn´t help chuckle when a mother (aged 27) asked for 8 bowls of soup - one each for her and and the 7 kids. Although, this wasn´t quite as funny as when I asked one child of 15 what he wanted to be when he left school and he said "Narcotics trafficker". I asked if there was anything else legal he would like to do and he replied "Pilot". I guess he´s more likely to be the first, but you never know, if he does well he could combine the two...

Finally though, we met some great folk and have never been embraced by so many different people in such a short space of time. We certainly learned a lot and took away far more than we gave back.

Stu´s reaction

2007-07-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Stu reading the blog...and before beer.

Stu´s birthday

2007-07-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

The beer experiment was very much at the centre of this 16th July, Stu was very eager to try out various combinations and locations and views as you can see, making it a terrible birthday altogether. Given the occasion, we checked out of the youth hostel and checked ourselves into a rather nice Posada, with a pool and cable TV and most importantly its own generator. While the rest of the town ( including our former hostel) slipped into darkness due to a powercut, and people stumbled through the cobbled streets of Paraty using candles and torches like in the olden days, we just had a steam sauna and a caipirinha at the bar of our posh hotel.

Happy Birthday Stuart!!

2007-07-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Roeser is an adequate substitute for the tropical climate of South America - however there is still nothing quite as good as Mr C in Luxembourg.

Hope you have a great birthday, I'm sure you can get hold of a decent cocktail over there...we'll stick to our brown ale and cider. Cheers!

Love

Peggy & John
xxx

Happy Birthday from Misslebecca

2007-07-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Stu,

next pint is on me,

hugs and kisses

Misslebecca

Big Brother´s wishes

2007-07-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Do you emember the river Tay?

Unfortunatley I have no embarassing shots however could talk at length about Stu´s

fetish for obscure food and drink and the impact it has once the bowel cycle has came to the last part of the journey. apparently best experienced with the daily paper preferably a sunday as this is the biggest read as it takes in the whole weeks news.anywaybecause of stu wiser years a pic of yoda wouldbe suitableas will a trip down memory lane with the tay me and mags send a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY and a wee pic that he does not need reminding of in which direction to gohere is happy birthday in another language

"Happy Birthday" Afrikaans Veels geluk met jou verjaarsdag! Albanian Urime ditelindjen! Alsatian Gueter geburtsdaa! Amharic Melkam lidet! Arabic Eid milaad saeed! or Kul sana wa inta/i tayeb/a! (masculine/feminine) Armenian Taredartzet shnorhavor! or Tsenund shnorhavor! Assyrian Eida D'moladukh Hawee Brikha! Austrian-Viennese Ois guade winsch i dia zum Gbuadsdog! Aymara (Bolivia) Suma Urupnaya Cchuru Uromankja! Azerbaijani Ad gununuz mubarek! -- for people older than youAd gunun mubarek! -- for people younger than you Basque Zorionak! Belauan-Micronesian Ungil el cherellem! Bengali (Bangladesh/India) Shuvo Jonmodin! Bicol (Philippines) Maogmang Pagkamundag! Bislama (Vanuatu) Hapi betde! or Yumi selebretem de blong bon blong yu! Brazil Parabens a voce! or Parabens e muitas Breton Deiz-ha-bloaz laouen deoc'h! Bulgarian Chestit Rojden Den! Cambodian Som owie nek mein aryouk yrinyu! Catalan Per molts anys! or Bon aniversari! or Moltes Felicitats! Chamorro Biba Kumplianos! Chinese-Cantonese Sun Yat Fai Lok! Chinese Fuzhou San Ni Kuai Lo! Chiness-Hakka Sang Ngit Fai Lok! Chinese-Mandarin qu ni sheng er kuai le Chinese-Shanghaiese San ruit kua lok! Chinese-Tiociu Se Jit khuai lak! Chronia Polla NA ZHSHS Croatian Sretan Rodendan! Czech Vsechno nejlepsi k Tvym narozeninam!! Danish Tillykke med fodselsdagen! Dutch-Antwerps Ne gelukkege verjoardach! Dutch-Bilzers Ne geleukkege verjoardoag! Dutch-Drents Fellisiteert! Dutch-Flemish Gelukkige verjaardag! or Prettige verjaardag! Dutch-Frisian Fan herte lokwinske! Dutch-Limburgs Proficiat! or Perfisia! Dutch-Spouwers Ne geleukkege verjeurdoag! Dutch-Twents Gefeliciteard met oen'n verjoardag! Dutch Hartelijk gefeliciteerd! or Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag! English Happy Birthday!

Vill Gleck fir dain Geburtsdag!

2007-07-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the boys back home!

Happy Birthday for Big Hungry Scotsman

2007-07-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

There once was a young lad of Perth,
Who by cycling did lose lots of girth,

He then met a Feller,

"You're great" he did tell her,

"I'll move from my country of birth!"

So to countries low he did go,

Away from the rain and the snow,

Where the teaching is easy,

And relationships breezy,

But we miss him back here, he should know.

Now all over the world, they take trips,

And of much local beer do they sip,

But like all Scots abroad,

While back home it just poured,

Stu's deep in Brazil...with the squits.

---Next time you're back in Europe, I'm going to have to make a proper effort to visit you. It's been far too long.Mahinda

Ísla Grande, Brazil

2007-07-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

These are the modest boats with which you arrive on the island and on which they take you on a trip, like the one for snorkelling in the Blue Lagoon. By the way, they don´t really eat you, only have a wee nibble.

More monkey business

2007-07-14T16:19:00.001-07:00

This week we visited ´Brazil´s most beautiful beach´ called Lopez Mendez, on the island Isla Grande. You have to take a boat there from the main part of the island and it is like taking part in a holiday programme. The boat looks like a sailing boat, Brazilian music is playing loud and all the ladies are sitting around in bikinis (I didn´t notice myself, but Martine mentioned it later in the day). Anyway, back to the story, Martine went for a call of nature in the trees and was met by some little friends who were wondering what she was up to. Standing at about 20cm plus a stripy black and white tail, they look at you just as you are looking at them, as if they are asking themselves: Why this funny looking creature with white skin and no fur is peeing in my garden. Why does she look scared when I´m only 20cm tall and she stands at 1.65m? Why is her even bigger friend reaching for a shiny square thing that flashes light? Why is he white and red?´ Martine was very brave though while a group of monkeys formed around her. She didn´t move once as they came closer and closer. Yes she is very brave indeed and was not stuck to the spot due to being in the middle of the call of nature, or marking her territory as you might call it...

Click on this-Iguazu for you

2007-07-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Click on this and hopefully, it will take you to Iguazu Falls on You tube. Enjoy!

Iguazu Falls

2007-07-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, extra pair of trousers, extra pair of socks, underwear, Fleeze, Poncho, Raincoat, Cap, woollen hat, gloves, no need for sunscreen, do you want another cup of tea? God, it´s freezing in Iguazu, and we are supposed not only to go close to the falls but go UNDER them with a boat.
For three days, we have waited for the weather to clear, but as it hasn´t and as we hit a record of sleeping with 5 covers plus sleeping bag the previous night, we ´ve decided to head for the falls.

As we arrive: sunshine all over the place, we take off one layer after the next, why did we not bring sunglasses and sun screen? Somoene must have told someone up there we were coming today.

As we get on the boat, everyone shout: have a nice shower! Smile! The boat takes us around the corner and suddenly you see the biggest waterfalls, it´s just fascinating. Whenever you think you´ve seen it all, there´s another big one around the corner. We´re sitting on the boat, our belongings and shoes in super waterproof bags, jeans rolled up, suddenly the captain cries:´No more cameras, put a cameras away!´ I take our my super cool bright yellow poncho and put it on top of my raincoat and my cap, just to get ready for ´the shower.´ Everyone else looks scared seeing me: Is it really that bad? The boat takes off, we get closer to the falls, get a bit of a sprinkle, but you get a good idea of the amount of water coming down and the noise it makes. Okay, ready? ´Stu, have you got the poncho covering your jeans? Ready? Ready? ´We go closer, get another wee sprinkle, aaaand, thank you, now we can go back....

Ok, in hindsight, maybe we were overly prepaired, but we DID get wet feet coming off the boat onto the wet stairs. Thank God we had our extra pair of socks!

Santa Maria de Catamarca

2007-07-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

No laangem Sichen haten mir Santa Maria de catamarca endlech fonnt: am Norden vun Argentinien, hannert geien Hiwwelen, an do wou d´Beem Plaaz fir de Steps gema hun. An deser Geigend reent et net vill, wat dann och direct en Problem as fir d´Wirtschaft an dÁrbechtspalzen an der Geigend, well der gin et der net vill. Eng Staadt dei ganz aanescht as wei dat wat mir bis dohin vun Argnetinien gesin hun, an awer as eppes dselwecht: d´Leit sin immens leif.

Mir waaren ennert anerem do fir en Projet vun enger letzeburger ONG kucken an filmen ze goen, an sin direct superleif vun der Famill vun der Directrice empfaang gin. De Projet dreit ronderem eng Schoul dei geschaafen gouf fir den Leit aus der Geigend d´Handwierker an d´Traditiounen vun der Geigend nees kennen beizebrengen an Konschtobjetén, Artisanat hierzestellen fir Touristen an ze wessen wou di verschidden Elementer hirkommen. Et war immens interessant, et sin Leit, virun allem Fraen vun all Alter dei an deser Schoul sin an super Biller, Keramik, Bijouén an Metallsaachen hirstellen. Een vun den interessansten Atelierén war wuel den vun der Woll, wou eng 15 Fraen de Stuart net mei lass gelooss hun an beschwat hun sou dass mir zum Schluss nach bal eisen Bus verpasst hun, hien awer en scheine Schal kaf huet:). Den Atelier gouf vun der Marguerita an d´Liewen geruf, virun enger 5 Joren, wei di argentinesch Economie zesummengebrach as an d´Famillen am Duerf keng Arbescht mei haten. Hei hun d´Fraen eng Arbescht fonnt, wat och nach eischter ongeweinlech war, well et nach eng zimlech patriarschesch an machistesch Gesellschaft hei as. An awer: matt denen Machinen dei mir zu Esch Sauer vlait eischter an der Duchfabrik gesin oder soss an engem Musee, maachen si Ploveren an Schaler, aus Lamawoll: 30 Stonnen Arbescht fir en Plover. Domatt kennt Suen an d´Duerf, mee nach vill mei, schengt et.

Iwwerall sin mir leif empfang gin, sin bekacht gin, well eis Quick Zoppen eischter aarmseileg ausgesin hun an hiren Aaan. Eppes as secher: d´Temperaturen um Termometer waren mei wei deif do uewen, mee wat dei mei déif sin, wat d´Leit mei waarm sin, schengt et.

2007-06-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

After visiting Tupizza in Bolivia where Martine had a ride on horse who liked to gallop but not stop, we moved back into our favourite country - Argentina. On a beautiful square in Salta we sat back and enjoyed the wine while watching the world go slowly by. Then after having our shoes shined we enjoyed the best beef steaks we have ever had while watching Tango dancers and traditional music. Martine got so carried away with being back we bought a CD from each band and a DVD of the Tango dancers.

We then went south to stay with a family who help run an Arts and Crafts school based on traditional Indigenous techniques and partly funded by an Italian/Luxembourgish NGO. This was very interesting and great fun. Especially when we visited a group of ladies who made woolen products from scratch - it takes 30 hours to produce 1kg of wool (enough for one pullover). This time I got a bit carried away and bought a scarf which was just being finished with a brush made with spiky parts of a plant.

Oh I must mention that on the way down we popped into Cafayete which has a micro-climate that is perfect for growing wine. Martine was able to follow the Spanish guide who explained all you need to know about the wine grown there-I just enjoyed drinking it while munching a cheese platter.

Concha K

2007-06-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

On our first night at the Salars, we arrived in the small village called Cocha K. Stu and I went out for a bit of a walk. To be quite honest, Stu had heard the words 'Plaza' and 'cerveza' in one sentence and was determined to find the local pub. Local pub we found, although slightly different from home. It was a lady's kitchen, with little signs of 'pollo' and 'hamburgesa' on the window. Yet, she had several bottles of beer for sale, kicked out her friend and served us two bottles with a charm that was difficult to resist. As it was about 18.30. we couldn't really see much of her home, as the sun had set, yet (so we were informed), electricity in the village was only switched on at 19.15. So there we were, sitting in the lady's kitchen, at candlelight, looking at the naked ladies on the wall (goes well with beer it seems) and chatting about how the weather has ruined their harvest of quencha (a cereal similar to couscous or wheat, on which most villages around there survive). At 19.05, out romantic atmosphere was killed by the sudden emergence of electric light. Within seconds, blankets were removed from what seemed like a box...and the TV switched on. The lady almost got herself electrocuted as her self-made extensions had metallic boards on the back- but SHE COULD WATCH HER NOVELLA (soap)! And WATCH was all there was to it, as there was no sound. It depends on where in the village you live, you see, she said to us. Up the road, they had sound, but no good picture. Here, we have a good picture but no sound. And if you live all the way down the village, you'll have sound AND picture. We know where we'll move then:)

How many hats can you wear?

2007-06-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Salar de Uyuni

2007-06-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

A jeep. Six backpacks. Six backpackers. A cook. A driver. That was the combination for our 4 days in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia. To be honest, the lack of space at the back of the jeep put me old flashpacker into a bit of a panic, but I got used to it, and fortunately we got out and had a walk about very often, so our legs got a bit of a stretch. Those were four fantastic days, in the most fascinating of landscapes: salars (so much salt and no chips, can you believe it...), Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorado with a total of 2 flamingos ( the others had died as the fish feeding them had been poisened by some metallic substance in the water) and finally the colourful rock formations around Tupiza. Given that we still haven't found a geology book explaining all the different grey and red shades of colours in those mountain ranges, I just assume that some freak from Hollywood has decided to film a really wild cowboy movie out here and has painted the rocks...dengdenggedeng BONANZA...

The most amazing part of the trip, however, was the accomodation. While we stayed with some of the loveliest small Bolivian villages providing lovely lama fur on the bed to keep us warm (yuuummm...) or military accommodation camps, they all had one thing in common: the maximum temperature at night was -10C. We had been warned, but despite wearing every single layer of clothing (plus all the scarfs and ponchos you will be getting as souvenirs, thank you), we were absolutely shivering. All that only so that they could get us up at 5 a.m. at -15C and take us to the 'Gizas', hot water springs with pressure coming out of the holes in the ground at 130C... some warmth...so near yet so far....Bolivians are really cruel.

La Paz

2007-06-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

As requested by Mr John Teale of Luxembourg, I reluctantly carried out a purely Scientific experiment of drinking beer at around 4000m above sea level to measure the effects. In order to verify and comfirm the results I drunk more than one at each meal and on different nights at different locations and various heights. I didn´t drink to excess, but I can confirm that I recorded little difference between drinking at sea level and the dizzy heights of Peru and Bolivia. However, I will endeavor to carry on this level of scientific enquiry as long as I am in Bolivia, moving towards sea level in Argentina, on the plane home and on my return to Luxembourg. I hope you the appreciate the lenghts I am going to for the sake of Science.

One interesting observation I have recorded while travelling at these heights, is that although we have to move very slowly and become quickly out of breath, my digestion system works incredibly quickly especially when I eat salad or that cream cake I had the other night. We did become suspicious when the Chef called over two waitresses to discuss the cake before serving it, but I was too polite to say I´ve changed my mind. So although we are having a great time up here, my bottom is very keen to return to sea level.

As you can see from the pictures I followed another request by Martine to have my hair cut. I wanted to wait until I found the highest hairdresser in the world, but my sideburns were starting to have a life of their own. It is the best haircut I have ever had so I didn´t feel at all bad when the barber obviously charged more than the usual price for a haircut and shave. In fact, due to the care he took in using clean razor blades and sterilising his instruments I gave him a tip of 10 Bolivianos. This brought the price to a total of 60 Bolivianos (6 Euros or 4 Pounds) and we parted company thinking we had both robbed the other.

Crossing a border and the Isla del Sol, Bolivia

2007-06-08T17:45:00.001-07:00

June 3rd was a big day for us: we were going to arrive in a new country. In fact, we were really only going to the other side of the lake, not the Stau in Esch, no, no, the Titikaka lake, which involved three hours' drive. Stu was a bit nervous, but I thought: 'How different is it gonna be, there's a lake, there's potatoes, there's panpipes, there's funny hats... at the end of the day, we'll just be crossing a line on a map.'

Well, how wrong could we be... Firstly, the meals still cost 22, but Bolivianos, which means 2.2 Euros, that is exactly half price from Peru. Everything seemed dead cheap and very creative, especially the showers: they actually put the electric wiring THROUGH the shower, so that you get electrocuted every time you touch the (obviously metal) taps. Next thing, we check our email, and the guy tries to rip us off! The price per hour was 50 cents, and he tried to make us pay 80 cents, claiming we had been there for more than an hour, when we had actually only spent 40 minutes there. The cheek! He obviously doesn't know what 30 cents are to two teachers when you've not worked for a year and have been lying in the sun, sipping G+T for three hours before arriving at the internet cafe! In revenge, when we arrived at the Isla del Sol, we haggled so long (with our interpreter Helenka's help) with the lady until we got our brand new ensuite room for 10 Euros instead of 15.

Lake Titi- Taquile- Homestay

2007-06-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

When we decided to do a 'homestay' on Island Taquile, we were prepared for the usual: here's your mat, your mosquito net, your rice..and good luck. So we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived on Taquile and were shown our humble abode: there was a house with windows, we had our own room with two real beds in it and warm blankets, so did Yann and Catherine, our friends from Toulouse. In order to keep the whole thing under the label 'Close to nature', however, we were shown to our real Trainspotting toilet in a wee hut behind the house, no flush, no door, but the most beautiful view from a toilet I have ever had! The bath was called Lake Titikaka. Our highlight, however was the dinner: a room, door wide open (as you do at 4 degrees at 3700m above Sea level), no heating, no light, just a romantic candle planted in the middle of a couloufully set-out table. And just to make us feel at home: the dinner was omelette with rice. We loved it!

Lake Titikaka-Isla Taquile's traditional dresses

2007-06-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

Now, whose hat is nicer?

Lake Titikaka, Uros floating Island

2007-06-08T17:29:00.001-07:00

Et as net Fuesend, di Madame as och net deck (enfin, net grad esou deck, dei Jupe as e bessen extra), mee esou liewen d'Leit op den 'Islas flottantes' um Titikaka Sei. Hier Inselen sin matt dem koomeschen Strei gebaut, op enger Plaz vum Sei dei net grad esou deif as. Duerfir kennt et fir dass si mueres erwaechen an op enger anerer Plaz erwechen wei do wou se nach owes waren. Who needs an Around-the-world-ticket, if you can swim around on your own island?

Peru's highlands

2007-06-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Summersolden op 3800m- hei fennt een exquisit Saachen fir d'Ouren waarm ze halen! Op den Elvis och sengt?

Peru-Cusco

2007-05-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Some impressions of Peru, the Sacred Valley and Cusco (meaning the navel of the world, and that's what it feels like).The only problem is that Cusco is at 3300m, which means that us lowlanders have to drink lots of coca tea and water to feel slightly normal as the height really takes it out on your head, your legs and your breathing...feeling 30 years older within one day. Maybe goat's milk helps...

UuumhhMachu Picchu

2007-05-30T16:21:00.003-07:00

So, we finally made it to THE Machu Picchu, the Inca ruines that were never discovered by the Spanish conquerors and thus not destroyed by them. Not only the ruins but simply its amazing setting take your breath away, almost on top of the mountain Machu Picchu (mountain of all), with each hillside dropping straight down into the valley at a degree that makes you want to hold onto the wall when looking down.

Now, it is known that it is a spiritual place, every single stone, temple, wall has been placed in a way that each corner faces north, south, east and west, or often to the sun as it rises on the 21st June, or to pray to the Gods of thunder, lighting or the sun.

You obviously FEEL the spirituality of the place, almost hear it, so much that when you come round the Sun Temple, there are about 100 tourists sitting with crossed legs, bare feet, hummmming away while praying to...well who? Everything was eerily quiet on that platform until we realized that the GURU herself was present, bottle blond, vegetarian and clearly very HAPPY as she was sharing her thoughts on POSITIVE ENNNERRRGY with her followers through some sophisticated earphones. Stuart only made one comment: Upps, I wonder if they can feel my negative vibes...' When they suddenly started singing some Inca songs, we quickly disappeared. Cool to see the place, but we didn't really want to experience the energy of the bloodthirsty Incas or their Gods face to face...
PS: We saw the spirituralists again at the train station and they didn´t seem too full of positive energy when they were told they couldn´t board their train. We didn´t laugh-HONEST!

Lima-The most secure break-in in the world

2007-05-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Lima- in the new beepbeep city. Not beep as in the Santiago's sophisticated BIP card that you use for all public transport, but as in beeeeepbeeep-get out of my way, I am coming, in the middle of the street and you tuktuks better get away.Welcome back.

We stayed in Lima for a 3 days in a hostel voted the most secure hostel inthe world by hotelworld.com users. We had two CCTV cameras outside our hostel as well as our room, a metal cupboard for padlocking, an electric gate and door for entering the hostel and electric wire up and around the building for a little extra security. This did put us in a slightly nervous state of mind when venturing out of our secure compound, however, we ended up really enjoying Lima and had some great seafood and saw some really interesting Inca sites and colonial buildings. As well as beautiful walk along the cliffs.

However, when we were getting ready to leave ´The World´s most secure hostel´we couldn´t unlock our combination padlock. We tried for 20 minutes when I said we would have to miss our 6 am flight (as our passports etc were inside) when Martine had the better idea of breaking into the locker. She quickly calculated the price of new air tickets compared to the price of a new locker. So, and with remarkable ease, I bent the door back on the metal locker without even disturbing the things sitting on top and retrieved our things. The whole thing was obviously caught on CCTV, just incase someone really wanted to break in.We left 30 dollars for the owner, who emailed us later to say we are welcome back, and caught our plane on time.

Please give us your thoughts if you think it´s still sounds like ´The World´s most secure hostel´if a primary school teacher can break into a locker without waking anyone or disturbing the furniture.

Santiago - and sweet revenge

2007-05-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

We spent 11 days in Santiago which is quite long compared to most people that stayed in our eco-hostel. But, we really enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere (in the hostel) and managed to find quite a few treasures dotted around the city-such as craft markets, funky restaurants and a really good vineyard.
However, the real highlights came from our 3 visits to hospital. The first was to get my tooth fixed at the very posh and private German clinic where we had a wonderful lunch. The second was to the local hospital for Yellow Fever injections, which was a little different with wires hanging from the ceiling etc (but very clean). But the third visit was the real highlight. We returned to the German hospital (mainly for the lunch as well as a check up for Martine). Finding that no receptionist nor nurse spoke a single word of English or German, Martine prepared for the visit in advance by writing all about her Thrombosis in Spanish, using a dictionary and our super 'Instant Spanish in 6 weeks book' so as not to have any confusion with the doctor. So Martine asked the doctor if he spoke English (a little), German (No), French(no) and thus gave him the notes she had written. He was not impressed, flicked out his pen (black ink) and spent the next few minutes correcting Martine´s spelling while she went red from the toes up and I rolled about my seat laughing (Martine had earlier corrected me at breakfast for not conjugating my verbs correctly when trying to speak Luxembourgish). Once he had finished he said in perfect English "So, now tell me what´s your problem in English."
Needless to say there weren´t any problems after all and Martine is fit and healthy. And I have a had very easy time making lots of mistakes in Luxembourgish without being corrected once. Revenge is sweet!

White water rafting

2007-05-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Martine pursuaded me to go white water rafting here in Pucon, which turned out to be great fun, if a little bit scary at times. It was 5 degrees in and out of the water and raining, but as I fell into the river before I even got in the boat, it was clear that staying warm and dry would never have been an option anyway. The most difficult grade of water to raft on has a grade of 6 and we had grade 5 (perhaps to match the temperature). However, the the cold was the least of my problems (this is the part where you should start feeling sorry for me and saying Martine is so cruel for making me go rafting) as I now need dental work on my front tooth after my paddle struck me in the mouth. As you can see from the picture there is a gigantic chip missing and now somewhere at the bottom of a river. (For maximum effect this story should be read with the sound of a violin playing in the background)

Hot hot hot

2007-05-07T15:57:00.003-07:00

Here in Pucon we're staying in a wee wooden hut that even has a TV and a private bathroom, but no heating. We have a gas heater that we have to share with 2 other huts, so we take turns...We dared to mention the cold to the landlady in the morning and were quickly confronted with reality. 'Central heating is only to be found in very expensive hotels in Santiago for example, where apparently they even heat AND open the window at the same time. Here, we can only heat with gas, which we used to have in abundance until three years ago, when Bolivia wanted not only access to the sea over Chilean land but also a big chunk of land itself. The Chilean people said NO, so Boliva turned off its gas supply. Chile then got gas via Argentina, but then Bolivia threatened to cut its supply to Argentina too. So now we only have a bit of gas from Patagonia, and wood to heat. That's why almost every day a house burns down. It is difficult to heat, no Chilean household has heating all the time, you just have to put on an extra jumper.'

Upon that, Stu and I just felt like spoilt brats from Europe and assured her that we love a nice cup of tea anyway... Just as well they put up a volcano here which gives 40 degree hot water to the best outdoor swimming pool we have ever seen...We spent the day in Pucon's hotsprings Los Pozones.

Pucon

2007-05-07T15:57:00.002-07:00

We have arrived in Pucon, Chile, a quaint little town that features a volcano as its breathtaking backdrop. We were tempted to climb the volcano and have a look in as it's bubbling away, but then some people said that they didn't get to look at much lava but just got lots of toxic gases in the face and had to wear gasmasks (an item that seems to have a history in Chile...). This obviously put us off, not that is was for the 5 hours walking up a steep hill in ice and snow... So we went for a nice little horseride instead.

Cuppa

2007-05-07T15:57:00.001-07:00

Not to forget our latest dearest investment: a flask! Not only does it mean you can survive on mushroom cuppa/ Quick soup each day for 10 days, but you can have a cup of tea wherever and whenever you want. Fantastic invention!

Investigations

2007-05-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Extracts of the phonebooks of Argentina and Chile tell you more than you expect about its population: Regnier, Regenwetter,Rothschild, Ruffles, Rovlocic: immigrants from so many countries, it seems they got more than their fair share after each war or conflict. The famous cemetery in Punta Arrena (C) has big Scottish sections (Alastair MacDonald, born in Inverness, died in Punta Arenas...) as well as German sections. Unlike your first thought, most of these are settlers that came at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century, fleeing the problematic economic situation in some parts of Europe and coming after the land that was full of gold and oil, or so they were told.This is all so much more interesting when you relate it to Stu and me and our deep fascination for imports by these settlers: we have spent quite some time investigating the quality of the traditions and how they survived: eating chocolate and cheese fondue brought in by Swiss settlers in Bariloche, sausage and Speck'von Fach' imported by the Germans. The best so far, however, has been the Salmon that you can buy for 2 Euros per kilo at the market, not imported by anyone, but fiercly garded by the biggest sea lions ever seen. Be warned, if you buy their bit, they will come after you along the pavement.

Cats

2007-04-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

We have moved at a very slow pace for the last week. We visited a small town called Esquel where we were the only guests in the hostel and the only customers in the pub. Our only company was a cat with a Hitler moustache and a small dog disguised as a ball of wool. The last time I (Stuart) stroked a cat I was 7 years old and it bit me. I have mistrusted the species since then, but was relieved to find this one was very nice and didn´t make Martine sneeze (she is usually allergic). However, just when it had gained my full confidence and affection the little fascist bit me, and I´m sure it later raised it´s paw in a kind of salute. I had heard the Nazis fled to Argentina after the war, but I had no idea how they disguised themselves to avoid capture.

The other large cat pictured with Martine was a Puma captured by a Gaucho (cowboy) and his pack of dogs in El Calefate (See entry: Riding Riding Riding). I don´t think it was a Nazi, but you never know.

Perito Moreno

2007-04-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

We've seen glacier, not a big thing, we thought, when we took to the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate. However, we did not expect such a beast: 18 km long to the root of the mountain, 5 km wide at the front,walls 50 m high, which makes you feel very very small. As some paths were closed we had the pleasure of watching the glacier spit and crack for 5 hours, causing a frightful noise, you feel the whole thing is coming down to get you any minute. The best thing was that after 4 hours it almost melted in our presence, Kat's wish came true and a huge tower broke off, causing huge waves. Some people say it's simply because it moves 40cm everyday and gets squashed by the coast and the pressure of the lake where it reaches it shore, we rather believe that it was so pleased to see 1,5 people from Luxembourg that it gave it its honours. Fantastic experience.

Riding riding riding

2007-04-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

After 4 weeks in Argentina and Chile, we decided to go for the true Gaucho experience and go for a sunset ride on horses, warming ourselves up for the 'Estancia' experience. The Andes on the one side, sunset over the lake on the other, in the center of it all: Stuart the cowboy. Gringo, my horse, was very pretty but somehow reminded me a little of the cows you get in Switzerland: orange-brown and white and not very high. I felt quite ok, till it started walking off in all directions going for its dinner and chewing grass like its swiss counterparts and then suddenly trotting off, me just helplessly wobbling on top.
The best was obviously our cowboy Stu, who admitted to the gaucho that it was his first time ever on a horse. The gaucho simple replied: 'Good, first time for your horse too.' Needless to say that the Bonanza tune was not sung for while.

The gaucho invited us to his home later, which we thought was quite a funky place with lots of torturing tools and animal skins hanging around. He proudly explained to us that he was working on a puma skin at the moment, which he has caught 20 km from his home. The smaller skin was the foetus of a cow that he had emptied and in which he was keeping tea and coffee. Lovely.
'Do you eat puma?' 'Yes, I eat puma, cow, horse, rabbit, guanaco, ostrich, wild cat,puma is good, but you have to cook it for a long time.' Stu' And quickly because it's so fast.'
The gaucho taught us how to catch an ostrich or a guanaco, which live around here, with a three-legged line with weights on them. He claims he tries to catch all animals to eat or to keep, but not women: 'impossible to train!' What a lovely guy, not surprising then that the ratio in El Calafate is 7 men to one woman.

Kap Horn

2007-04-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

No der 'suedlechster Staat' (Ushuaia) geet et op den 'suedlechsten Punkt vum Kontinent' an dann as just nach den 'suedlechsten Punkt iwwerhaapt'- Kap Horn. All Mensch war wei aus dem Heischen das mir matt eisem klengen Boot net nemmen BEI d'Kap Horn gefuer sin, mee och GANZ RONDEREM, eppes wat ganz EXCEPTIONNEL as. Exceptionnel? Virwat dann? Denkt Martine.
Bis mer do sin. Ech soen iech, et as jo schein dee Wupp vun Welt ze gesin an UM Wupp ze sin, mee et gett jo e Grond virwat si dat net dachs man, naemelch well den Drake Passage (wou Pacific an Atlantik zesummenkommen (jo, si hun di selwecht Farw an et gett och keng Schleiss), jo do juppelt et narwell gudd.Esou gudd dass eng 800 Scheffer do schon ennergaang sin an dem Martiune sein Mo matt. Ech hun eng Foto gema an sin brav um Deck bliwwen-aus renger Iwerliewensangscht, well wier den scheinen bloen Teppech giel gin. An ech duercht ech wir net seikrank...

Who said the Scottish were tight?

2007-04-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

For all other fellow tight people, let me show you the MEAT. M=Meals and Drinks (you need some food with the wine), E=Extras (Entrance fees, internet fees etc), A= Accomodation and T=Transport. Our target was to live under 40 euros a day,then 50, then 60, which as you can see from the graph, we rarely do. However, although our average was over 76 euros a day for the first 10 days, our next ten days were 59 euros and 75 cents a day, which gave me a very warm felling in my Scottish heart. Then we went on a cruise...

Landsick

2007-04-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

After 3 nights on all inclusive cruise with as much food and drink as anyone can muster, it perhaps comes as no surprise to some that I (Stuart) fell ill only once I was back on land. It could have been a common symptom experienced by people after a boat journey, however, I believe that I am just sick of the idea of not living like King for the remainder of this trip. Some of the highlights (apart from the ones Martine will write about) were drinking Polar beer whilst in between South America and Antartica, watching the head chef make animals from cutting up vegetables and being served Scotch Whiskey and Gluwein after our trips on speed/life boats to see two Glaciers and an area where tribespeople lived until Europeans arrived. It´s the little things that make the difference.

Can you name these islands?

2007-04-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

The World´s most Southern Micro-brewery

2007-04-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I (Stuart) sampled the local beers here and was delighted with what I was served up. Hain is the name of the southern most micro-brewery and the other local beer was called Beagle. They both offer beers as Blonde, Black and Red, and in the interests of completing a full scientific investigation, I tried them all. Beagle Black was my definite favourite and the taste was enhanced when I noticed the Bar´s motto, 'Enjoy, you´re at the end of the world.´

A closer shave than first thought

2007-04-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, our phones were stolen in Puerto Madryn, but we did not realise until a few days later. Luckily they were both locked with PIN codes so we will hopefully not face large phone bills. They are also now blocked. Well, worse things happen at sea (hopefully not for the next four days though as we have booked ourselves on an all-inclusive cruise from Ushaiai Punto Arenas in Chile). We also decided it would be a bad idea to be too paranoid about having our stuff stolen, but then immediately offended the staff at our hostel by asking for a key for our room.

Terra del Fuego-'End of the World'

2007-04-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

We have finally made it: after another 12 hours of bus (which makes it 42 hours altogether and five weird sweet powdrey cups of coffee later), we have arrived in USHUAIA, officially the end of the world, at the centre of the Terra de Fuego. Admittedly, during the last 12 hours of bus and endless border crossings, we wondered: why are we doing this? But, once arrived, it was all worth it. The End of the World is spectacular, no postcard or traveller's account can tell you how beautiful it is, a small town surrounded by one of the most magnificent backdrops of the world. There is lots to do in terms of walking in the national Park of Terra del Fuego, and today, we went on 4 treks!... It's not for unfit people though, the longest was no less than 2 km long....we did it the Luxembourgish way....

Spanbuergesch

2007-04-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Just en klengen apercu vun eisen Progres'en an Spuenesch. De Stuart an ech léiren all Dag e bessen Spuenesch matt engem Buch, al Dag 35 Minuten. Just datt, wann et drems geet, dann kennt beim Stuart di richteg Sprooch eraus: spanbuergesch.

D'Madame an der Estancia seet eis: Hasta Luego Buene Vaccaciones!
De Stuart: Merci: Schein Vakanz!
Am Bus fir op Ushuaia:
Stuart: Perdone, tiene Zocker por favor?
De Mann: Como?

Haut an der Epicerie ronderem den Eck wolten mir Speck kafen.

Martine: Tiene Bacon, lard?
Stuart: Speck wannechgelieft!
D'Madame: ¿Como?
Mir: Pig, pork, grunt, grunt...bacon

Op eemol faenken di aner Leit am Buttek un ze hellefen.
D'Madame hannert mir: Sorry?
D'Madame virun mir RRRRRRRRRRRRRamon? Jamon?
Stuart: Nee, pardon, bacon.Swein.
D'Leit ruffen durchenaner, soen der Madam hannert der Kees all Zort Saachen: Pancetta, Queso, Bife...
Bis op eemol: Tocino!
Aaahhh! Tocno! Seet d'Madam hannert mir. Mir kucken op d'Madam hannert der Kees. Tocino?
D'Madame: ¿Tocino? Noooooo....non tiene tocino
An dun goufen et eben just Nuddelen....

It´s a hard life...

2007-04-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Martine´s new friends

2007-04-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

An da mengt een emmer di Pinguinen géngen nemmen am Eis liewen. Ma, gudd gelaach, mir waren di witzeg Creaturen besichen, 40 cm grouss, an esou engem koomeschen struppegen Fell (et as grad nom Summer an si warden drop hirt alt Fell lass ze gin fir neies ze kreien, verschiddener waarden op de Coiffer, aner hun hiren Leiwsten den hinnen de pelz ofknabbert, leif, mee e bessi strange) stin se dann do dech ze kucken, wei's du si kucks...Mee heiansdo gin se schwammen an dat as narwell spectaculaer:)Mir hun hinnen e bessi nogekuckt, mee ech froen mech nach emmer wien hinnen dei Aerm ugestréckt huet...
Et waren och Orka'en do. Grouss Opreegung wei mir aus dem Bus geklomm sin: Orka'en sin do, seier, seier! Bis mir awer do waren, haten dei sech seier aus dem Stepps gema, dei hun sech och gesot: 25 Joer mei speit, an dann kommen d'Briten scho nees, seier fort hei:)

A nice cup of tea

2007-04-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

Some may think it excessive for me to drag Martine on a 4 hour round trip to a Welsh village (that Princess Diana visited no-less) to drink some tea. However when I saw the lady approach us with a woolly tea cosy on the pot I knew I had made the right decision. This was then followed up by her pouring the milk into the cup first (never understood the whole milk-in-last theory at all), thus ensuring a piping hot cup of Welsh tea. As if it couldn´t get any better, we were then served scones, sponge cake and fruit loaf - heaven on a plate. (Martine has just told me that is enough, so I will end now before I go too far). C´mon the tea drinkers!
(Martine: and all that on the 25th anniversary...colonialists or what...)

A close shave

2007-04-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we booked into our first Dorm. in a YHA hostel and looked forward to meeting fellow penguin spotters. However, within two hours of our arrival our room was broken into from the street. It looks like a nice quiet street by day, but at night it turns into a more seedy area altogether. When we walked back into our room we found all our things thrown all over the room and the ugliest male transvestite pouting his lips through the window of entry. Not sure which was most shocking. Luckily for us nothing was stolen, however the Finnish guy we were sharing with had his passport stolen and all his cash. They were very clever thieves and knew exactly what they were looking for. I (Stuart) was very lucky as they hardly looked in my bag at all apart from the part of my baggage that I was using as my secret hiding place for 10 days up to only two hours before the event. (Just in case you are worrying at the moment, Martine and I are very careful and have back-up plans for such a thing happening again.) It was also the only night we have been out of bed after 10 so we are usually very close to our things- it pays to be a bit boring.

"Margaret Thatcher, that *$&!&/# woman"

2007-04-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Martine and I have been really surprised at how friendly and helpful most people have been to us since we arrived in Argentina. Most folk just laugh along with us trying to speak Spanish and most importantly stay around to find out what we are asking. However for about five minutes we got an insight into what could be descrived as Argentina´s raw nerve. We had a guide nicknemed Otto after the bus driver in the Simpsons, who seemed to know everyone in the small town Sierra de la Ventanna that we visted last week, and had a good laugh with everyone he spoke to. However, when we were alone on the bus with him he showed us two tattoos on his arm. One was a copy of Maradona´s signature and the other was the Argentinian flag in the shape of an island, which I (Stuart) had to guess which island. After staring at it for a while and uhhmming and ahhmming I shouted "Ah, the Falklands!". This is roughly the reply I got:

Otto: Not the Falklands, the Malvinas, the Malvinas, not the Falklands. Margaret Thatcher that *$&!&/# woman and that %&/%*&% Galtieri. He sent young men in the cold to fight, I tell you that %&$%&"/. That is what is wrong with this country-POLITICIANS. They have ruined this great country and that &%$/&%$ woman. I tell you that &%(/%$& woman...

(Silence)

Stuart: So, Maradona, great player!
Otto: You like?

And with that we were back to normal. He even drove us around town to find a pub to watch Italy v Scotland (which we luckily didn´t find).

This is our little secret

2007-03-26T16:14:00.002-07:00

SO...we have not told you about our little secret, or the 'seffegen secret' as some might say about our last 4 months. Given that Stu loves mulled wine and Christmas charols, we spent Xmas in the small but fabulous country of Luxembourg, Europe. It's the size of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, but there are definately more people than sheep here, and lots of nice people who like drinking wine as well as beer. After waiting for snow for 4 months, it was finally white in March in the Grand Duchy, and we could take off again towards the sun. 21st March 2007, 10.10, rue du Grunewald, Blaschette, a lonely cowboy and his hat were waiting for the bus to take him to Buenos Aires.

Big day out

2007-03-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

First we visited Maradona's first (and last) team Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires and then we went to see the favourites River Plate play Gimnasia.

Spot the intruder

2007-03-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

We're all Socialists now...

A Quiet day out in BA

2007-03-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

We had been wondering about why nobody was shopping...thousands of people were in the streets, demonstrating to remind people of the 25th March 1977 the day the military took over the country in a coup d'etat and ruled during what is now called 'the dirty war'. In those days more than 30 000 people were killed and up to today noone has been made accountable for that.

Becky and Lindsay did not want to come downstairs from the hostel because it was 'too dangerous'. 'Too dangerous'? I mean, what was going to happen? We really enjoyed the action and sat down in a cafe outside our hostel and had a couple of glasses of wine, taking pictures and watching the people.

In the evening we switched on BBC world and watched a report on Buenos Aires where riots had taken place down the street from us, in the Aveninda de Mayo.

Well, the wine was fantastic.

2007-03-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Buneos Aires, 22 marzo 2007. Buenos Dias, ¿que tal. That's about as much Spanish as we know. Stuart did, however, practiced his useful sentences from the phrase book to order food and not come across as a silly tourist. So we went into a lovely bakery to buy a piece of ricotta and spinach pie and one of leek pie. Stu, having pracrised extensively beforehand, proudly walks in with his discreet hat, points at the pie and proclaims: UNO and UNO, pointing at the two pies. The girls bursts out laughing and repeats: ONE and ONE? YES... that'll be all.

After having gone for a lovely tour of the city, which is very clean, quite hot and has a bit of a Paris feel due to its Haussmann architecture but also a bit of Spain or Portugal due to its beautiful, very lightly dressed ladies, we end up in the Avenida del Mayo. This is where marches used to take place, but as the guy in our hostel confirmed, the Argentinians are not very united anymore nowadays, ...

Football Festival.

2007-03-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went to see River Plate Football Club play a team with a Spanish name that I can´t pronounce (By the way, we are learning Spanish for 35 minutes every day for the next six weeks with a book we bought. Today we sat in the kitchen like a real pair of school teachers and tested each other with Flash Cards -we´ll never be mistaken for Bonny and Clyde). The atmosphere at the game was completely different from European football. The crowd behind the goal sang continuously for 85 minutes no matter what was happening on the pitch. Even after the Away-Team scored they just started singing again. It was only in the last five minutes when they were 0-1 that everyone concentrated on the game (many people at the singing end were facing the wrong way for most of the match). Unluckily they didn´t equalise and luckily for us the Riot Police were not used and only a few bottles made it onto the pitch. We would have run onto the pitch to protest ourselves, but we would have had to jump 2 metres over a moat filled with sewage to get to the pitch and then face police with sheilds and batons. We would have thrown our bottle of water, but that was taken off Martine at the first of two search points. Call me observant, but I think the supporters take football quite seriously here.

Thanks!

2006-10-30T03:50:00.000-08:00

One of the surprises of travelling is that you come to miss some of the most extraordinary things: Zossiss (luxembourgish sausage), Muesli, curries, nailbrush, milk, tea, football, wooden chairs, talking letzebuergesch, Gala, and Nutella (ok, I admit, that was to be expected).
Then again, you come to like other things, revealing rather odd traits of your character: reading Agatha Christie, Lipton tea with lemon, DW TV, train toilets, toilet paper, shower cabins, cockroach-free zones, shade, hats, rain, earplugs, eyeshades, cars which use indicators instead of hooting.
Some of our longings were thankfully answered by some supplies imported by Rebecca and Christine, with whom we spent a great month in Vietnam. The best of that trip was probably the trip to halong bay and the day in the dunes of Mui Ne. Just off the beach, there are huge dunes, white ones and yellow ones, in which you can do sand-sliding.

Sounds sophisticated? It is: a ten-year-old boy (school was already finished, I'm sure) waits for the tourist jeeps, leads you through the dunes and at some point gives you a thin plastic board. Lie on it and off you go, down the steep dunes. It's very exciting, especially if you don't expect it to go that fast (yes, the boy is lighter than us) and that you end up like fried fish in batter: yellow, sweaty and full of crumbs.

Given that we're having a bit of a break in our travels, we'd just like to thank you for reading our blog (we'll be back!), and especially thank the people with whom we shared some of the trip here: Christine and Rebecca (merci fir de Schokola and d'Zossiss!) and of course Krijn, Lisa and Stijn, with whom we discovered Laos. Hope you got home alright and stick to eating fruit in the morning:)

Dr Dong

2006-10-29T01:54:00.000-08:00

Ech setzen an der Cafeteria/ dem Restaurant an waarden op den 'Dr Dong', den huet d'Madam am Hotel geruff fir no mengem Been ze kucken. Et as e besi geschwollen ennen an rout, et fillt sech un wei wann ech d'Muskelen gerass sin, keng Ahnung wat ech gema hun. Eran kennt fir d'eischt eng vietnamesesch Madam, hannendrun e klengen verdruddelten vietnameseschen Mann matt enger Malleta.
Si schwaetzt drei Wieder Englesch, hien keen Franseisch oder Englesch, ech keen Vietnmesesch, dat kann jo Freed gin...Hien kuckt mein Been 2 Minuten, schwaetzt net mat mir an verschwennt 10 Minuten an d'Buedzemmer. Wei en eremkennt, d'Haenn gudd gewaesch, d'Gesiicht pletschnaass, mecht seng Maletta op an hellt eng selwer Kescht eraus matt Scheiren, Messeren, Spretzen, dei all mei brong-raschteg sin ewei selwerfaarweg, ech mengen dei sin mei al ewei d'Saachen dei ech an esou munchen Kelleren vun virun 50Joer erausgekroomt hun. Ech gin scho waiss am Gesicht, hoffen dass deen net welles huet mech opzeschneiden oder opzepicken matt irgendengem vun denen Instrumenter...
Gott sei Dank hellt hien just Medikamenter eraus an schneit mir genee 4 Voltaren Pellen an 4 rosa Ma-mech-frou-Pellen eraus, 4 roud Vitamin B Pellen a 4 bloer. D'Madam seet eppes vun Allergie/ Inflammatioun. 'Op wat?' froen ech 'Dat kann villes sin, mengt si: Iessen, Dreck, d'Plage, en Insekt...' ganz in formativ, ech si frou dass ech den Dokter geruff hun.
Vu dass ech mein Spuddelwaasser suckelen an ech net well onheiflech sin, froen ech den Docter Dong op hien eppes wilt drenken. Dat hat en verstan! 'Heinecken!' heescht et, '2'. Ok, souvill fir net am Dengscht drenken...Wei hien seng brong-raschteg selwer Kescht nees agepaak hat an eng gudd Zigrett ugefaang huet, faenkt hien un mam Stuart op Vietnamesesch ze schwaetzen. Sein Hut an sein Sonnebrell gengen hien interesseiren...Wei hien 'the Marlboro feeling' bis op Foto festgehal hat an seng Beierchen genesslech gedronk hat, froen ech hien weivill hien geng kreien.'Medical Insurance?' freet en mech, ech soen Jo. Hien kuckt an d'Luut, kuckt vun wou de Wand kennt, an declammeiert: 40 dollars.'
Ech muss jo net preziseiren dass ech 4 Deeg drop, wei ech nees zu Hanoi war, an d'franseischt Spidol gaang sin well mein Been mei schlemm gi war, an dass dat ganzt weit ewech vun enger 'Allergie/ Inflammatioun war. Derwert war et emmer, an wann och nemmen fir ze staunen.

Leider as mein Been net besser gin, hun eng Phlibite/ Trombose an de Monni Docter huet gemengt ech haet besser mech ewech ze man aus Drettwelt-Lanner, also kommen mir elo emol nees kurz heem, awer nemmen fir eng Dusch ze huelen an e puer Bludanalysen ze man, wann et mir no geet:)

Asian Remedies

2006-10-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

'One dollar madam, one dollar, please madam, buy picture', the lady in the Vietnamese hat shouted as I ran off the floating restaurant, avoiding to throw up in front of her. 'No, thank you' I managed to say. I felt so sick, I just steered right towards the wall to sit down and be within safe distance ofthe garden where I could hide my sickness.

Stu, Rebecca and Christine finally came out of the restaurant, so I got up to go towards them, but my body suddenly felt drained of energy. 'Oh, I think I'm going to faint, or be sick,no, faint AND be sick, right here right now', I thoughtto myself. 'One dollar, madam, one dollar, sir, please buy picture', I heard from far off . Suddenly I felt the colour vanish from my face, my lips, I managed to just sit down and the lady in the Vietnamese hat came rushing towards me, changing her tone completely. 'Sit, sit, sit!' she ordred, 'oh, oh, oooooooooohhhhhh'. Another Vietnamese hat came running towards me, then a boy, both panicking. The boy came up withan nlighing idea, it semed: 'Wait, oh, wait here', he ran off towards his boat, I imagined to get a sick bag.
I was about to be sick, right there, right then, in front of all these people watching me from above me. The boy came back, holding a small bottle with green liquid in his hands: 'Very good, very good, American!' he proclaimed, proudly. Well, if it's American, it must be good... (surprising you trust them, given your history).
The first woman in the Vietnamese hat took the bottle and rubbed some of the liquid under my nose. Another woman appeared, took the bottle and rubbed it on my chest, shouting something in Vietnamese. The boy interrupted: 'Temples, on temples' and put the stuff onto my temples, while the first one was still rubbing my chest, harder now, as if to affirm her authority. I couldn't move, my chest was all red from the rubbing , I still felt weak, but a little further away from fainting than before. Yet another woman arrived, proclaimed that one must rub it where it hurts, lifted up my T-Shirt (thank god I'm not the shy type) and rubbd it as hard as she could onto my tummy, so hard, I thought I was going to be sick again, she was pushing it all up, erggghh, I wobbled, looked right and left for support. Suddenly, the first woman changed her strategy, seeing that the colour in my face was draining again, and started pinching me between my eyes. One rubbing my tummy, one rubbing my chest, the other one piching the thin skin between my eyes...you can't say that the Vietnamese are not helpful when it comes to ill people. Finally, I heard Stuart saying in a friendly, but confused way: 'Ehm, thank you, she, she'll be okay, thank you, Oh my god, thank you,yes, I think she'll be fine now.' I tried to get up, held Stuart's arm, walking off with a following behind me.

Believe me, I was back to my senses, my chest was all red and ached from the rubbing and the skin between my eyes was red and swollen for days afterwards. If ever I worried about the hair growing there, I needn't anymore...

A normal day

2006-10-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

6.12 I’m woken up by the hooting of ten motorbikes and a barking dog. Try to go back to back to sleep using my earplugs..
7.30 Alarm goes off. Time to get up.
7.35 We go downstairs. Stuart goes to the reception: ''Excuse me, are there any good tailors around the hotel.'' ‘Yes, sir, many tailors.’ ‘Can you tell me a name?’ ‘Many tailors, sir.’ ‘Okay, where can I find one, do you have a name?’ ‘Name sir?’ ‘Yes.’... Confusion… ‘Shall I come back after breakfast?’ ‘Yes, sir, after breakfast I give you name.’
7.40 We go into the restaurant to have breakfast. We tick on their list: bread and butter with jam, boiled eggs, noodle soup.
7.50 The bread and jam arrive. No butter. No eggs.
7.55 The soup arrives. ‘Could we have butter please?’ ‘Butter? Yes’
7.57 Girl comes back with tea.
8.00 Girl comes back with coffee.
8.03 Girl comes back with breakfast for other guests.
8.05 Girl comes back with butter. We have breakfast.
8.15 Stuart goes back to reception. ‘Do you have a name of a tailor?’ ‘Tailor, sir?’ ‘Yes, I asked you earlier for the name of a shop to make a shirt.’ ‘Ah, no sir.’ ‘No name?’ ‘No, sir. '
8.20 We go upstairs, I try to unlock the door and the key just breaks off. We have learnt not to be surprised by these situations, so, we go downstairs so they can call someone to fix the lock.
8.25 Reception: ‘Okay sir, you go upstairs, someone comes to help you.’
8.27 We’re in front of our room, the receptionist has the other half of the key, no toolbox, and puts it next to the lock, as if, magically, the key would melt together and be whole again. Stuart:’Eh, I think this doesn’t work, you need a tool, I think.’ Receptionist: 'Eh, yes. I go get tool, please wait here, take a seat.’ (There are no seats in that bleak corridor.)
8.40 The man comes back with a toolbox, pulls the key out of the lock and opens the door. ‘Thank you.’’Ok, you stay here, I go make key for you and come back. ‘Ok, when will you come back?’ ‘Later.’ ‘When , later?’ ‘Later.’ ‘When later, in 5 minutes, in 5 hours, tomorrow?’ ‘Later, sir.’
8.42 I get undressed, get into the shower, turn on the taps. No water.
8.43 I get out of the shower, phone the reception. ‘There’s no water in our taps.’ ‘Yes, Madam, turn on the taps, water comes out.’ ‘No, I just said, there is no water.’ ‘Ah, yes, I switch on water for you.’
8.45 I get into the shower, turn on the taps, still no water.
8.50 I get out of the shower, phone reception: ‘ There’s no water in our taps.’ ‘Yes, Madam, turn on the taps, water comes out.’ ‘No, I just said, there is no water.’ ‘Ah, yes, I switch on water for you.’
8.56 I get into the shower, turn on the taps, there’s water, I have a shower.
9.10 I get dressed, while watching BBC News. Suddenly, all lights go out, air-con off, TV off. Given it’s rather dark in a room with no window and no lights, I phone reception: ‘There’s no electricity in our room, 507.’ ‘Sorry, madam?’ ‘This is room 507, there’s no electricity in our room, lights off, TV off.’ ‘Ah, yes, I turn it on for you.’ ‘Thank you. ‘
9.15 Still no lights. I phone reception: ‘There’s no electricity in our room, 507.’ ‘Sorry, madam?’ ‘This is room 507, there’s no electricity in our room, lights off, TV off.’ ‘Ah, yes, I turn it on for you.’ ‘Thank you. ‘
9.20 Lights on, TV on, Air con on, Martine happy.
9.50 Suddenly, all lights out, air-con off, TV off. I phone reception: ‘There’s no electricity in our room, 507.’ ‘Sorry, madam?’ ‘This is room 507, there’s no electricity in our room, lights off, TV off.’ ‘Ah, yes, I turn it on for you.’ ‘Thank you. ‘
10.00 We go downstairs to leave the hotel. ‘Sorry madam, you must leave your key here.’ ‘Yes, but our key broke and you are getting a new one, so we have no key to give you.’ ‘Yes, but you need to give us your key.’ ‘Yes, but it broke, we have no key.’ ‘Ah, ok, Madam. Can I have your key, please?’

A Very Serious Account of the American War

2006-10-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

'Escuseme.

After the French were defeat in Diem Bien Phu, the AmeriCAN soldiers moved in. President JON SON decided this. The maaaan reason for this was the communist expansion, the Communist expansion was vely faaaat.Some US soldiers did not want to come to Vietnam but the government sent them so they came.
Escuseme. 20 million gallons of a chemical Agent Orange, no more forest, then, many people got sick and cancer and many babies in deformity born. Even AmeriCAN soldiers get the same from cancer.
Escuseme. Here is Rock Pick Mountain. In the war, the AmeriCAN put a lookout and a RAdio on top of mountain, that way they could control the demilitarized zone. Here a lot of land mice. Even today a lot of land mice, put under ground, someone stand on it, boom. 5000 people lost here after war because of land mice after war, last year one lady killed by land mice when she farming. Yes, land mice still very popular in Vietnam. (common?)
Escuseme. US veterans tell me only 70% of bombs dropped exploded, still 30% out there. Very dangerous, not easy to clear.'

The VC Tunnels in 'Nam with a guide

2006-10-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

As everyone probably knows already, the Communist North Vietnam army created tunnels to fight against the Americans during the Vietnam War (or the American War if you come from Vietnam). We visited the ones on the north side of the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) around the middle of Vietnam-separating North and South. The whole trip lasted twelve hours with only thirty minutes down the tunnels with very little description of life down their and the fight against America, which was a bit disappointing.
However, the highlight of the day was our guide who had amzingly transported himself from the seventies onto our bus-it's not on every guided tour you meet a Time Traveller. The long greasy hair was perfectly matched to his seventies Hawaian shirt, his right hand constantly stroking his hair, his left hand holding a microphone and a position that only carried one message: I'm a performer, and I am ready: 'Ladies and gentlemen, escuseme...'
Please see above for the English teacher's perception of the guide's very serious account of the Vietnam war. I mean the American war.

Keeping it REAL!

2006-10-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

After Hanoi, Martine and I hired a Land Cruiser and driver to take us around the North-West of Vietnam. It is not a very touristic part of the country and is possibly most well known for the area where the French lost a large battle to the North Vietnamese army, thus creating North and South Vietnam. However, there are some great mountainous landscapes and our first stop was a home-stay in a 'Traditional' tribe village. This reminded us of our trip in Laos (a very quiet country which we now miss dearly) and we were quite excited to be staying in a traditional wooden house without the conveniences of modern living. As the sun set, I put on my head torch and helped Martine find her things so she could go for a shower. When she was ready she took the head torch and I sat in the dark looking at the night sky, wondering how it must have been like this in Europe a few generations ago. However, within a minute the boy of the house came in, switched on the light and sat down in front of the Satellie TV. Moreover, Martine didn't wash at a well, but in some concrete cubicles with European toilets. And they call this TRADITIONAL? We did think about asking them to switch the lights off as they were only attracting mosquitos, but instead we ordered a cold beer and coke from the fridge and enjoyed a freshly cooked meal on the plastic chairs and table. (Just in case you are wondering, we are not those types of tourists-I mean travellers- who would like people to stay without things like electricity, so there are always places to go on holiday and see 'real' people.) Technology-we love it!

The DOG!

2006-10-11T04:58:00.000-07:00

Most people know that I (Stuart) am not a great dog lover, but may you please direct any anger you feel about this story towards Martine, because as children say in Primary School "It wasn't my fault -she dared me!" There are many dogs in Vietnam, and to the untrained eye they may look like pets. However, that is not the only purpose they serve in life (or death). So when I joked that the Vietnamese had the right idea in eating them (when some were barking at us) MARTINE said "I was all mouth and no trousers," if I didn't eat one myself. (As you can see, I am completely blameless in all of this.) So that evening after MARTINE had arranged it with our driver, we went to the most unhygenic 'restuarant' either of us have ever seen to do the terrible deed. (Incidently, MARTINE ate Buffalo, which are extremely cute animals in their own way.) I was served hot deep fried dog and cold boiled or roasted dog. BOTH tasted horrible and were very chewy, although the driver and his friend took great delight in the whole experience. Needless to say, neither of us felt very well for the next few days, and vegetable noodle soup was consumed in large quantities.

I (Martine) am not to blame for any of this, it is Stuart's sick love for food and hatred for dogs that led him to this. I'm glad to say that he felt awful for several days and that he will probably agree one day to having a dog as a pet after all, without me having to be afraid that Stuart will have had it for dinner.

Ech iwwersetzen den Text hei net well en e schlecht Liicht op mein soss normalen Frend geheit...

HaNoise

2006-10-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

On visiting Hanoi for the first time we were not shocked to find many people asking us to part with our money in various ways every metre or so. This involves repeatedly being asked: 'What's your name?', 'Where you from?', 'Moto?' (a ride on the back of motorbike), 'Silk scarf?', "Hotel-Cheap price for you!" and so on, and on, and on and on... However, combining that with the noise of hundreds of motorbikes within eyesight and any one time, who seem to have their horns short-circuited to the accelerator is too much for anyone with a sane mind to bare. Luckily for us though, we stayed long enough to see their Full Moon Festival, where as part of the celebration, even more people than usual go onto the streets on their motorbikes and slowly drive around peeping their horns. We did manage to find some very nice restaurants and cafes which proved to be real treat, however, all good points of the city were completely drowned out by the sound of peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep......

'The Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao people listen to it grow...' Dat Sprechwuert seet alles. Dass et am Laos e bessi mei lues leeft war am Ufank e bessi koomesch, mee mir hun ons seier un dei Rou an dei leif, eischter schei Leit gewinnt.

Dass de Vietnam geng anescht gin woussten mir soubal mir aus dem Flughafen vun Hanoi erauskomm sin. Honnert Leit dei no eis geruff hun 'Minibus, Moto, taxi, here Sir, no not this bus, where are you going where are you from, what is your name'. Mir waren esou geschockt dass mir decideiert hun net een vun den Touristenbussen ze huelen mee een vun den 'local buses', den en plus nemmen 1\4 vum Preis war. Mee soubal mir matt denen aneren 80 Vietnamesen an de Bus geklomm sin an all Mensch ugefaang huet matt kicheren, woussten mir dass mir di eischt Europaer waren dei je an dem Bus waren. 'Net um Rucksak setzen' huet et geheescht, de Schaffner, rappt mech mam Arm op an flucht op Vietnamesesch. Mee soss war kee Setz mei frei an am Gang war masseg Plaatz, wat as do de Problem? Mir sin op eng relativ aggressiv Maneier vun eisen Rucksack gestouss gin an hin an hier geplennert gin- beim nexten Arret woussten mir dun virwat, - hei sin nach 80 der Hallefportiounen erageklomm, an beim nexten Arret nach emol... well wann's du mengs an Asien as e Bus voll, dann as en nach laang net voll. Mir waren definitiv am falschen Bus, all Mensch huet eis Koomescher gekuckt, also sin mir erausgeklomm an probeiert erauszefannen wei en Bus mir missten huelen. An op manst 10 Leit sin direct ronderem ons fir ons ze hellefen, ganz leif, just dass keen Englesch konnt, mee egal, si hun ennert sech discuteiert an d'Kaart ronderemgereescht... super leif Leit.
Irgendwann sin mir dunn am Centrum vun Hanoi ukomm. Zu Hanoi liewen 8 Milliounen Leit, an ech mengen den Owend waren se all op hiren Motorieder fir eis ze begreissen. En plus muss du hei d'Senner e bessi emdreien. Et geet net duer ze gesin dass en Moto oder en Auto kennt, et muss een et heiren, tuuuut. Tuuuuttuuuuut. tututututututututututututttttttt. E Code de la route gett et net, den mei Staarken, oder de mei Haarden gewennt, dat as Wahnsinn. Dat hei as di eischt Stad wou ech mech heiansdo emgedreit hun fir ze kucken op den Stuart nach hannert mer lieft oder schon iwwerrannt gin as-mee och dat as liewensgefeierlech.

Letzebuergesch?Confusion

2006-09-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

Vu dass mir souvill Fotoen hun, hun mir ons gesot mir setzen all Geschicht an 2 Sproochen op de Blog fir dass mir mei Fotoen kreien;)
Vu dass vill Leit leiwer op Letzebuergesch liesen hun mir ons Geschichten vum Laos op Englesch and eemol op Letz geschriwwen, net dass dir mengt mir wiren um repeat Knepchen haenken bliwwen. Sot eis wat der leiwer hudd oder op dir total am Kabes sid elo. Kabes an Bufftek as iwwregens wat mir di lescht 3 Deeg als Kaffi moies kruten... lecker.

Thai Massaaaage!

2006-09-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

These have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Our first massage was by the sea on Lonely Beach which was a picture of paradise. Our second was a foot massage which was eye wateringly painful at times, but just what we needed after our first time getting lost in the jungle. However, after this, things went a bit weird. I (Stuart) went for a massage on my own to a place I thought looked official –whatever an official Thai massage parlour looks like. However, the lady seemed to be in a permanent state of confusion that I ACTUALLY wanted a massage, and looked perplexed when after an hour I got up, paid her, said ‘thankyou’ and left. The next was trully horrendous. Instead of relaxing music, I got a blaring television and a really good massage on my left arm (as that was in the direction of the TV). I then decided that this was definitely my last massage. However, after dinner in the remote village in Laos, 8 young Tribeswoman appeared in our hut in traditional dress and helped ease the pains of our hard day. Maybe not the end, but next time we go together.
(picture: efficient Laos sales technique...but we like it)

Our special slideshow-Laos 2

2006-09-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

Having arrived in the north, we chose to go on a two-day trek to visit the Akha hilltribe people an enjoy the unspoilt beauty of Laos. Unfortunately, 3 hours into our trek, the rain et in and our trail was transformed into huge mudslides. I don’t mean a bit of mud on our shoes, I mean, no sight of shoes, no mention of ‘walking’, it was rather like having a bunch of 80-year-olds holding on to their sticks and anything they could find in order to maintain some kind of stability and move forward a little. A few hours of this, an a few sore falls later, however, ou realize that basically it’s just like skiing and if you apply the same kind of fules, you’ll get down. Somehow. After this slideshow, we were all relieved that after the strainuous trek, the only thing we would have to do is sit on a bus to Luang Probang for 8 hours. If there had been a bus that is. If there had been seats that is… We arrived at the bus satation and the minibus was full, but we had tickets. Not a problem in Asia, you can sit on ricebags… so here we were again, on the rice bags, unable to move, on our journey down something called road, rather reminding us of a golf course given the amount of holes, only that these ones were rather large and filled with water. Luang Probang is a fabulous city, full of temples and old colonial buildings, with a very relaxing atmosphere and a fantastic market. It’s nice that the French left the cafes and the croissants, a shame they took the suspensions for the buses with them when they left…

The Unspoilt Mud of Laos 1

2006-09-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

Travelling through south-east Asia…so exciting, just the traveling that you might think of would involve buses and trains and sometimes a plane. You get the more exciting version though. Arrived in Laos, we got tgether with 3 other people and chartered a ‘private long-tail boat to take us from Huan Xai to Luang Nam Tha, in the north. The adventure of ‘travelling’ started when we tried to get onto the boat, with our huge backpacks (also called television), we had to walk through a narrow little alley that led to the water and for some reason there was one line of bamboo branches laid out in front of us. I personally soon discovered why, as I was hanging in the mud up to my knees, 18 kilos on my back, 10 kilos on my front, unable to get out of it as it was this kind of mud that swallows you as soon as you move. Fortunately, the little man from the boat came to help me, and took my little rucksack off me just to return to the boat…but I was still sinking and sinking. Eventually, after three other people had ended up in the mud as well, I got out, forced to donate my shoes to the mud of Laos. Having arrived at the boat, the choice of seats were limited: there were no seats, only huge bags of rice…our ‘private boat’ was a cargo boat…

Vun Bulli a Fierkelen- Laos 2

2006-09-20T23:02:00.001-07:00

Ukomm zu Luang Nam Tha, hun mire is op en Trek gema an den Nationalpark. Am Ufank waren mir jo na ganz begeeschtert, Reisfelder, e bessi durch en Floss treppelen asw. Bis et ugefaang huett matt reenen an eisen Wee just nach Bulli war. Net e bessi Bulli, eischter wei schwaarz Seef eng Pente erof oder erop, just hei konnt en neischt gewannen. Mir hun keng Schong mei gesin, vun trepplen was keng Riets mei, eischter wei 80-Joer-al Ditten dei sech un hirem Bengel festhalen fir irgendwei erofzefkommen. Irgenweid hun mir et jo gepackt an sin am Akha Duerf ukomm. 300 Leit liewen do, planzen Reis and an anerer koomesch Kaeren un.D’Fraen sin plaakesch bis op eng Zort Jupe an gesin al aus, obschons se vlait nemmen 40 Joer al sin.
Mir konnten ons dun bei den ‘Petz oder bei de Floss’ waeschen goen. Natirlech fir d’eischt erem en Hiwwel mat Bulli erofrutschen, dann kent een bei den ‘Petz’, wat am fong just den ieweschten Deel vum Floss as, en Ennersched teschent denen 2 gouf et am fong net. En Ennerscheed tescht ‘virum Waeschen’ and ‘nom Waeschen’ och net, well een jo nees huet missen den Hiwwel mam Bulli erofkommen fir bei d’Huett.
Bei der Huett ukomm, gesin mir e Grupp vu Leit op en kleng Schwein kucken. Wat da lass wir, froen mir. Dat as eist Owesiessen…Gudd gelaach, bis den Mann mat engem riisen Messer lass fiirt. Am fong as et ganz einfach: also, fir d’eischt d’Patten zesummenstrecken fir dass dat Dengen net zevill wibbelt, dann den Hals durchschneiden bis dat ganz Blut erausgelaf kennt, (den Mann huet nach emol mam Fanger nogekuckt op och alles eraus wir), an dann an d’waarmt Waasser zappen, mam Kapp fir, dan kann een d’Haut besser erofzeien. D’Fierkel wibbelt dann nach e bessi, wei wann et lieweg wir, mee dat as net schlemm, dat sin just d’Nerven, soten si… Gedaerms eraushuelen, a Stecker schneiden an op de Grill, also bei d’Feier. Delicious…

De Bulli am Laos 1

2006-09-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

Mein Rucksack huet en neien Numm: ‘television’… well dat as wat all Mensch hei seet wann se mei Rucksak an den Bus oder op den Dag vum Tuk tuk hiewen…dobei war ech esou stolz dass ech nemmen 18 kilo derbei hat.
Dat matt dem Reesen wir jo flott, wann et nemmn Busser an Zich wiren…Am Laos ukomm hun mir eis gesot: komm mir huele esou en long-tail boat (2 cm iwwert dem Waasser) fir an de Norden ze fueren (15 Stonnen, 2 Deeg). Mir charteren esou en ‘privat Boot’ mat 3 aneren Leit, hoffen op eng gudd Setzplaatz matt ‘vue sur la riviere’. D’Aventure faenkt schon un wei mir sollen bei d’Boot kommen, ech matt mengen 18 kilo um Reck an 10 kilo am ‘klenge’ Rucksak. Mir treppelen esou en klengen Wee erof, durch eng Wiss, dun op emol leien just nach esou Bambooaescht virun eis. Ech hun ganz seier erausfont firwat, wei et bis am Bulli festhung, bis iwwert d’Kneien, mat mengen 28 Kilo….an de Bulli as wei den am Sumpf, all Bewegung heegt dass de weider erofrutschts.Gottseidank as dun de Mann vum Boot komm fir mech ze retten…an huet virun allem emol mei klengen Rucksak geholl an hut sech nes emgedreit fir bei d’Booat ze goen, waehrend d’Martine am Bulli verschwennt. Ech soen iech d’Fluchwieder aus allen Harenlaenner sin erauskomm, de Stuart probeiert mech um Rucksak unzehalen, de Rucksak as uewen, ech haenken ennendrun…Resultat: irgendwann-nodeems 3 aner Leit och hallef dran leien-kommen ech eraus, ouni Schong natirlech, dei hun ech dem hellgen Buedem vum Laos als Don gin). Mir gin bei d’Boat…genee, Vue sur la riviere: jo. Setzer: nee. Daach fir Schied bei 35Grad: nee….Also hun mir eis et op den Reissaeck gemitlech gema, op eisem ‘private Boot’, wat op emol en Cargoboot gin as…15 Stonnen….

You can't buy fresher!

2006-09-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago we went to a Thai market (next to the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai) as part of a cookery course and thought we had seen it all when it comes to fresh meat. We took great delight in watching a Canadian girl squirm as flapping fish were taken off the display, had their heads chopped off and then gutted. Apparently, Thai people like their fish really fresh, so the fishmonger keeps them half alive on the ice by spraying water over them occasionally. However, on our our Trek in Laos we were not prepared for our evening meal in a remote Hilltribe village. (That should be a long enough build-up for veggies to stop reading now.)
After a hard day walking through the jungle in very muddy conditions, we returned from the Well/bathroom to find a young pig tied up at the feet and mouth, squealing and trying to escape. When we asked why it was there, we were told it was our dinner. We couldn’t really believe it until one of the villagers came out with a machette and stabbed its throat, wiggled it about a bit and drained the blood. (Of course we had to watch!) It was then skinned using boiling water (this bit did concern us and a Dutch guy called Kijn, as the pig moved a lot during this process-but we were assured it was dead). It was then gutted, chopped up,barbequed and on our plates within two hours. Now that’s what you call FRESH MEAT!
Again, we thought we had seen it all, but on the bus home we were given a little more insight into Animal Welfare-Laos style. No blood this time, but a man stopped the bus, ran off to woman selling tied up Moles (yes, the little furry things that live under ground), bought two, stuffed them in a plastic bag and sat back down behind Martine (who was sitting on a bag of rice, because there were no seats left) with the two creatures wriggling centimetres from her back. I (Stuart) was amazed at how Martine did not seem fazed by sitting so close to two suffocating animals, but as the gentleman assured us ‘It’s ok, they are used to living underground.’ He then told us that they were a present for his parents, as you just can’t get them in the cities nowadays. Needless to say, we have not eaten any local food in two days and our first meal when arriving in Luang Prubang (UNESCO Protected City) was Pizza and Spagetti Carbonara. You just need a little break now and then.

Rules For Travelling in Asia

2006-09-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

Rule 1:If you book a tour from home to visit Asia you are merely a Tourist on Holiday. However, if you buy a Lonely Planet and buy tours from your guesthouse you a Traveller on a Trip (possibly for self-discovery).
Rule 2: A really poor person is more real than an ordinary poor person.
Rule 3: The same goes for countries - really poor countries are always more beautiful and amazing (you do not need to compare or give examples).
Rule 4: If you happened to enjoy a developed country more than a less developed one, you should keep that to yourself like the dirty little secret that it is.
Rule 5: If you used travel companies to take you from one hotel to next in a less developed country, and you are asked if it is easy to travel there-you should raise your eyebrows and say "Well, it was for me, but not everyone can handle it'.
Rule 6: Look horrified if are asked if you travelled with other tourists. They were not Tourists, they were Travellers!
Rule 7: If you meet someone who doesn't agree with you likening your visit to a poor country with discovering the Lost City of Atlantis, just look at them as if they just don't get it. They are obviously a Tourist and not a Traveller like you.
Rule 8: When applying for a VISA to entry a country, erase from your memory the fact that you have to apply for a Tourist VISA and tick the box which says Holiday.
Rule 9: If you go to Starbucks for a Caffe Latte Frappe for breakfast instead of rice noodle soup (as everybody secretly does at least once and again) DO NOT mention it to anybody.
Rule 10: Always remember to write on your blog how you hate other Tourists - I mean Travellers.

Lankawi Island

2006-09-08T05:25:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful island off the East coast of Malaysia. Here we took advantage of a chalet on the beach to get away from all the stresses and strains of not working. We were also accompanied by two hungry Geckos (small lizards) who lived in our room and ate all the insects. Just as well we opted for air conditioning though, as were heard the lizards in the cheaper chalets stayed up all night making a terrible noise. Not like us who are in bed most nights by 10pm. Hope the weather is nice in Europe too. Please comment, Stuart is missing the cold wind.

Utopia

2006-09-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

As pictured below,at the barber's, our next destination was Singapore. Although, this isn't the image most people would recognise of this city, which I thought was like a working version of London. Everthing is clean, there is almost no crime, people are really friendly and it has a big mix of cultures. It might not be the most democratic, but there is no litter and you get lashes for acts of vandalism-jolly good show if you ask me. We also met two nice Australian farmers from Orange called Helen and Hedley. They have invited us to their farm next year where they say it SNOWS (Hurrah for cold weather). Whilst there we we also sneaked ourselves into a private cricket club for a nice cold Bitter Lemon and Ginger Ale-who said colonianism was a bad thing?(As you may be able to tell, Stuart wrote this posting.) Well, Tally Ho,must go, and chins up to all in Blighty.

Monkey business

2006-09-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

One of the real highlights of our trip so far - Tioman Island, off the east coast of Malaysia. We decided to upgrade again to a dark wooden raised chalet with a sea view (and most importantly for Stuart, a kettle to make tea-the first time we've enjoyed such luxury).

However, the funniest part of our stay on the island was when we went on another jungle trek (must make a note to stop doing these) to Monkey bay, where we were not dissapointed with the title of our destination. Stuart was about to go out on a snorkelling expedition (30 metres from the beach) and Martine was making herself comfortable for a bit of cooking (tanning) when a very cheeky monkey made a guest appearance. He rushed out of the jungle, heading straight for his target: a blue Eastpack, fully packed and promising. Cheeky monkey didn't even sniff around, just openend the front zip, took out our neighbour's camera (also swimming) (the neighbour, not the camera, that was disappearing in the jungle) and ran off back into the jungle. The whole sequence lasted for 3 seconds and the monkey's confidence was absolutely unblemished by the shouts of its human spectators... so Martine gave chase, in full combat uniform (pink and turquise bikini, barefoot) and ran after the monkey in the jungle, who was calmly unpacking the camera... the monkey seemed so shocked that he didn't even take a picture but tried his luck with the neighbour's sunglasses later. Another sweet monkey later charged at Stuart but was scared off by Stuart's high-pitched screams.
Apart from the monkeys we met some real people, some really nice people as well, Anna and Magnus from Sweden, or Spain, who gave us some good tips for Singapore. Nothing prepared me for Stuart's fantastic visit to a barbar in Singpore's Chinatown (best haircut he's had for ages by the way:)

Jungle Trek - Malaysia

2006-08-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

First of all we would like to say that a jungle trek is not easy. As we wrote earlier we found it quite hard to know where we were going, as you are surrounded by overarching trees, disappearing paths and some quite steep climbs. However, when we first tried it out we were in the relatively cool Cameron Highlands. Having bravely faced up to those challenges, why not head to the National Park Tama Negara, where temperatures are never below 30 degrees C and the humidity is around 80%? And as we're there, why not go along this wobbly bridge that takes you through the rainforest at a height of 30m?
Seemed like a good idea, seen it on all the posters, got the camcorder, camera, digital camera, poncho, first aid kit, ready.
Well, it IS quite high, AND you had to wait for 2 hours, so we decided to do it the following day.
It goes without comment that by then Martine had decided that it is a silly thing to do, far too long, far too high, why would anybody volunteer to walk along these 500m at top end of the trees to look down, if you can stand there, feet on the ground and look up. So, we climbed another mount... hill instead, which proved to be quite a challenge with this climate anyway, sweating before, during and after the shower, in fact constantly dripping. Of course we got lost again and had to wave down a boat to take us back to the village, where we bought a poster of the bridge and a ticket to take us out of the jungle.

Shocked, confused then pleasantly surprised.

2006-08-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

Shocked: After learning about the proud tradition of Tea Production in Malaysia, during our visit to the Cameron Highlands, I have been shocked and dismayed to discover that in other parts of the country, tea (or liquid gold as it referred to due it always rising in price) is made with some kind of instant powder. Moreover, if you order it with milk and sugar it comes looking like an upside down cup of Guinness, which you have to stir to make it look like tea. And I can assure you, it tastes nothing like a cup of Cameron Highlands Tea.
Confused: Due to this truama I did not want to make the same mistake twice, so the next time I needed a hot drink I asked for coffee. Only to be served a cup with a bag full of ground coffee floating on top. Confused? Dazzled more like!
Pleasantly surprised: However, on this occasion my cup of hot brew was absolutely delightful and I was abe to restart our trip with the knowledge that not all Malaysians have lost their mind.
Conclusions: DON'T MESS ABOUT WITH TEA!
You can put anything in a bag, but you cannot make liquid gold in an instant.

Travelling with a Scot

2006-08-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

After we fled Cambodia (the land of $1 Sir, Madam, Tuktuk, $1 for everything) for which you still have to pay $25 each at the airport (but it's worth it), we arrived in Malaysia , not having a clue what to expect. I must say that after our bad luck in Cambodia, where people generally only smiled at us when we flashed a Dollar note to pay for something worth 30 cents, pulled us into their tuktuk or made us walk over disabled people literally sitting in the mud and... in the street so that we wouldn't get run over by their trucks, I gave Malysia the benefit of the doubt. I was very quiet for once, some may say an exceptionally calming experience, but the wrinkles on my forehead were more than prominent. This changed, however, as we arrived in Kuala Lumpur and were told to get on a bus, a real bus, with a ticket that had a real, definite price, and sat down. As Stuart asked the driver how far the hotel was from the bus station, he simply answered 'It isn't far, you may want to get a cab, you can also get a bus, but this might be more inconvenient for you.' Despite being an English teacher, I have never ever melted so much at a complete English sentence, using advanced vocabulary, the words CAB, and INCONVENIENT were just magic to my ears, and I thought, hier bin ich Mensch, hier m'ochte ich sein... :) I could stay here... I was even more fascinated by the fact that they had roads, even road signs and as the skyscrapers drew closer, we realized that Malaysia was just the right contrast to Cambodia. Kuala Lumpur is a modern and busy city, there's a great mixture of Malay, Chinese and Indian people, all selling fake Louis Vuitton purses and bags, but all very friendly and helpful. I thought it was still quite exotic, until Stuart got me to travel north, to the Cameron Highlands. As you read on, you might wonder what travelling is all about, if you can get a Scot to take you to a place called CAMERON HIGHLANDS, to walk in the rain and the mist and have tea...
We are now in the Cameron Highlands - named after a Scottish fellow who discovered/colonised the area a few years back (yes, they are everywhere). The weather is cool and rainy and once you have finished walking in the hills you can find shelter in one of the local tearooms and talk about your adventures over a nice cup of tea and a scone. It's great-even our favourite Indian restaurant sells Rock Cakes and Shortbread. It also serves some of their curry dishes on a cut out piece of Banana Leaf. At first, we thought it was a nice table mat until the waitress spooned rice and various other dishes on to it. Itwas absolutely delicious. To round ofthe day, we got lost in the jungle (a very entertaining experience for Stuart, who was rediscovering his childhood, not so for Martine, who just thought 'we will never get out of here'). Maybe our mistake was to follow trees with three red lines on them, maybe sings for an official path, but at hindsight, a sign for 'road leasding to death' or 'road not to take'- not even you Stuart....' We nearly escaped death and all the snakes,had a cup of tea (again) and headed of for a visit to the waterfall. There we met a nice elderly Indian guy, a former guide of 63 years of age (picture: we, that is the Scotsman, in the raincoat because it started to rain and he started to melt), with a huge backpack full of water, first aid kit, plasters, biscuits, fleeze, camera, and then the guide, with walking shoes he had inherited from a traveller who had left them behind in a guesthouse, and merely a handful of sweets and a basic poncho which he squeezed into his pocket. He was very kind and offered to walk down a path with us. He gave us lots of explanations, cut us walking sticks (given our fantastic level of fitness compared to this 63-year old...shame on us) and led us down the way to the bus stop. How do you know it's a bus stop? Because it is...no sign, no comment. We waited for the bus (one per hour) but it didn't come, so we ended up in a pick-up truck next to lots of tomatoes which took us half way, and later in a jeep with a Chinese friend of his. The lovely man, who knows the name of cabbage in 8 languages, and told us that 100 men can live to gether but not two women (after which Martine shut up) never accepted a penny for his help, but we had a fantastic day....

Weird food day!

2006-08-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

martineandstu
Sometimes gambling with the menu doesn't pay off.
Stuart's diet for today.
Breakfast: Curry on a bed of spaghetti followed by a sweet bun with a topping of sausages, mayonnaise and sweetcorn.
Midday snack: Roasted chestnuts deep-fried in a sticky batter.
Dinner: Malaysian mint curry soup. The ingredients were: spaghetti, dried bean curd, something that looked like meat but tasted a bit like parsnip, prawns and chicken in a spicy soup-topped with loads of MINT!!!
Drink: Black iced jelly. Didn't taste of much, but the shock came upon the first suck of the straw. Lots of slithers of black jelly hit my tongue-most to my suprise. A drink more at home on the set of Star Trek I think.
Very weird, very, very weird.

Happy Pizza

2006-08-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

martineandstu: August 2006
Had a very productive day today. We are in Pnom Phen and have been to see the a museum of torture (ah mmmm), the Royal Palace, a Russian Market and had a nice cold drink in the colonial Foreign Correspondants Club overlooking the Mekong River-very nice. We rounded off the evening by going to a place called Happy Pizza. The conversation with the waiter went something like this
Waiter: Would you like a Happy Pizza
Stuart: A herby pizza?
Waiter: Yes a happy pizza!
(Again and again)
Waiter: Would you like a very Happy pizza
Stuart: Oh yes please!
(2 minutes later)
Waiter: Do you know what I mean by a Happy Pizza?
Stuart: Herby?
Water: Marijuana, Sir!
Stuart: Em, (cough, cough) NO NO NO! No thankyou! Blody Hell!
Martine: (Giggling like a school girl)

That's when we read the notice outside again saying SPECIAL HERB PIZZA- WELL-KNOWN.... send two boring teachers to Cambodia, no wonder it's so popular...so we concentrated on our orange juice again and enjoyed the nice view....

Cambodia

2006-08-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Cambodia-ANGKOR WAT AND THE SCAM BUS

Hello everyone,
well, we are still trying to work out how this thing is supposed to work with pictures and everything but we promise you will get some.

So, we arrived in Cambodia on Monday and were thrown into things straight away. We witnessed poverty at worst-disabled people lying on the streets, begging, dirt, dogs etc etc... So we did the only decent thing anyone from a rich western country could do - we upgraded our hotel to include a room with cable TV, air conditioning and hot water. As any socialist will tell you, a growing economy depends on a flourishing small business community. It costs a little more for us, but it's the least we could do.

Actually, we are not so unkind (well Stuart is), we needed to pamper ourselves a little after we found ourselves on something known in Lonely Planet as the SCAM bus. This is a bus which you can't get off and get ripped off along the way. But being well-informed, we would nevere get on that bus, no, we just booked two tickets to get us with an air-con bus from Koh Chang island to Cambodia, due to arrive at 8 pm in Siem Reap, in northern Cambodia, along with all the other optimistic fellow travellers. Thge bus was small, but air-cin, the driver a bit mad and the journey close to rollercoaster which I love... but nothing compared to what happened after that famous border. First of all the visas were upgraded, from a $20 one to a $30 dollar one, so you can enjoy Cambodia and its corruption to its fullest, then walk over the border, guided by people who 'took care'of you and told you to exchange money here before you get ripped off later..no comment. Then you get on the second bus, the air-con has been taken out an sold, so have the bumpers and windows...it was quite an experience, onlz 4 more hours to go, haha. I tried to sleep, but resting your head agaisnt the seat would have been heaven for the next dentist around as you ricsked having your teeth kicked out. If you take the roads less travelled, do not expect it to be with concrete, in fact no. It took us quite a while to figure oput which side of the street they drive on, but apparently its is the right, or any way around the hole that is. Than god we were not on a SCAM bus, we thought, unti we stopped in the middle of nowhere to have dinner for 1 hour, being informed that we would only arrive at midnight. Not to mention that 2 hours later, the bus BROKE DOWN, that is we waited a little bit, let the tourists take pictures of an un-broken down broken down bus, use some tools to move the screw once to the left, once to the right, and off we go again,...thank god we are not on a SCAM bus. One hour later, we were told, out of the blue, that this bus can't go on because of the brakes and we have to change bus (I could have told you that when we got on, but no one listens to me here.... I miss the students) so we changed bus, were separated from our luggage and men (women an children first), so that the women could arrive first and choose the nicest room in the hotel, the only one the brought us to at midnight. Thank God we were not on a SCAM BUS. We love Cambodia and its people, they give you a very nice, eventful welcome, if a bit bumby, things to talk about and make friends here.

Koh Chang

2006-08-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

1st August
Well i've got 5 minutes before my money runs out to say that i am in Bangkok with Martine at the start of our world trip. So far my belly is fine and I was delighted to find out that chilly chicken with rice etc was served at breakfast. Martine was disgusted as I got myself a 3 course meal at 9am but i was over the moon.

Will speak more soon.
Too tight to spend more money
keep in touch stu

3rd August
We've just arrived on Koh Chang, fabulous little island still fairly unharmed by tourism. Unfortunately, it's raining much to Stuart's delight, who feels very much at home in the rain, only it's a bit warmer for once. Stuart is at home in his new hippy clothes and I am happy to see him out of his boring old ones. Still, his challenge now is to find trousers with pocket to carry necessary utensils such as tiger balm, poncho, toilet paper, mosquito spray, anti biotics for chittychiityrun run, sandals and sunglasses. As I said, a challenge it is, thankfully we have a year.