Borneo

Monkey monkey monkey monkey!

Quite a lot of them here, and Orangutans and Macaques (same sort of thing). More to follow when I write something....

Malaysia

Long days travel from the Thai islands, first a ferry, then minibuses (who tried to rip us off) with the worst drivers ever, then another ferry and onto Pulau Pinang for 2 nights. Malaysia really reminds me of home - everyone speaks English, the roads look the same, buildings etc. but it's still nice and hot! Had a look round this morning and went to an old fort, then we're off to another island tomorrow which should have some nice beaches to enjoy...

Thailand again

My birthday! Surprise McDonalds visit (complete with all the staff singing Happy Birthday, flowers, party packs and a birthday sundae!), lots of drinks, a ping pong show (no bats required surprisingly) and seeing in breakfast because we could. Hangover, then nightbus to Kao Phagnan for the Full Moon Party - just incredible and well worth the effort to get there! Hiring Jeeps, Mopeds and Quads for next to nothing and ragging them around the wicked dirt roads all week, snorkelling, swimming, white sandy beaches, chilled out cafes, luxury beach houses and more - what a fab place, just don't get robbed or ripped off (neither happened to me, but a couple of people I'm with were).

Cambodia

Another fantastic country (can you tell I love SE Asia?) - small dogs, big guns, monsoon rains, kids with pet tarantulas selling food, horrific Khymer Rouge, S21 and the Killing Fields, Angkor Wat and various other Wats. Beautiful country, I'm amazed it seems so 'normal' after what happened 30 years ago...

Vietnam

Another cool country - war zones, nights out, balloons, boats, diving, beaches!, jetskis, mopeds, ancient ruins, jellyfish, getting robbed by ladyboys on a night out with my neighbour, jacuzzi baths, luxury coaches, sinking swans, monkeys and enormous burgers. Great place, apart from the theiving ******s

Laos

Wicked chilled out country with tons to do - waterfalls, villages, rafting, kayaking, elephants, boat trips down the river, bars full of kittens, ladyboys and hickeys (not me I hasten to add!), cheap food and the odd temple too. Will add to this when I get the chance...

Brief updates at last!

So here it is finally, after nearly a month I've got round to writing some more on my blog. Considering I've been in one of the most internet cafe-y places in the world then it's a bit lame but I'll try to catch up a bit and add bits to posts for each country as I go. The crew blog has been updated lots with photos too, so have a peek here: http://odysseyoverland.blogspot.com/

More Thailand stuff will go here eventually...

Man who walk sideways through turnstile, he going to Bangkok

So having said bye to Sam and Simon (who had to head back to work at home) and a 3 hour flight (and seeing Everest again from a bit further away) we arrived in Bangkok, quite a shock to the system seeing modern buildings, cars, roads - just about everything seemed to have leapt forwards by 40 years. We met up with Tim and Cheryl who had managed to get Penelope safely back to England (with a few stories to tell!) and out to Bangkok before we got there. Also met Mike H who had done China, Tibet, Hong Kong and a few other places on his own before meeting us again. Our hotel was near the backpacker area of town and the place opposite did pizza - great!

Spent 2 days looking around a bit, went down the river on a boat and the skytrain to the biggest shopping mall in Asia in search of a new camera for Jo, found a McDonalds and KFC downstairs and had my first proper McDonalds beefburger in months! Had a haircut, she took quite a bit more off than I expected but it'll grow back one day... Had a nice meal and night out ending up in ice fights somewhere off Khao San Road I think?

The end of our third day in Bangkok we all loaded our stuff onto fast longboats - long boats with big turbo diesel engines perched on the back which go flippin' quick and deafen you. Then got into some very strangely decorated taxis (bright pink leather seats!) and to the train station where we found our way onto a sleeper train to Chang Mai. This took us from about 8:00 that evening to 10:00 the next morning so most of the time was spent asleep on the surprisingly comfortable beds - didn't see much scenery other than it being quite green outside.

Chang Mai was a really nice place with a great guesthouse where the owner did everything he could to help us arrange stuff to do. Spent the first day chilling out and finding out that Georgia had just been invaded by Russia and Pakistan had really kicked off - add that to the bombs in Turkey recently and it looks like we've been starting wars most places we've been! Found an Irish bar with Strongbow that evening - 2.50 for half a pint but it was nice to find it again!

The next morning we headed off on a guided tour exploring the area - starting at a refugee camp/tourist village where Burmese refugees are allowed to stay if tourists can come and stare at them. Saw some people from the Mong tribe (teeheeehee!) and those people who wear rings on their necks to make them longer (which actually just pushes their shoulders down to "make them look like dragons"). Went for a walk through some paddy fields, had lunch then wandered down a hillside to have a ride on an elephant! Three of us perched on top of Nelly (not her real name) and gently bumped and slid our way through the jungle. It's amazing how easily they climb steep slopes and never feel like they're going to fall, and just how gentle they are. Having done that we walked up the hill and got a lift to go bamboo rafting. By this point it was pissing down with rain and we were sheltering under umbrellas, thinking we'd be able to stay dry on a raft. How wrong can you be, by the time half of us were on the raft it was mostly submerged, by the time we were all on then it was about 6" under water and we were told to sit down on the "seats" which was just one of the supports across the raft. Luckily the river was warm as we spent 1/2 hour floating downstream, up to the waist in water with our umbrellas up to keep the driving rain out of our eyes - must have been quite a sight to see from the shore but unfortunately nobody got any pictures of us - a good end to an interesting day though!

The following day was spent wandering Chang Mai, even went to a Chinese temple briefly but we gave up on that when it started monsooning again. Back at the hotel Tim and Pete were contemplating hiring quad bikes as they'd spent the last days working and wanted some excitement, and as it had been raining hard the conditions were perfect so we booked that for the afternoon. On arrival we were slightly disappointed at the look of the quads, especially as we were told the buggies next to them couldn't be used as it was too slippery but we gave it a go anyway and quickly realised we'd made the right decision - it was amazing! The 250cc quads were a little tired, mine kept chucking the chain off but after the guide fixed it it made it through to the end.

One, Two, Three, Bungee!

A horrifically early start greeted us the morning of our flight, but the sky was fairly clear so things were looking good. Quick ride to the airport and through security and we were left watching a funny looking Guru on telly preaching for a while before we were taken to the plane. Everyone had a window seat which gave pretty good views all around and after about 20 minutes the (most un-smiley person I've ever seen) pilot opened the door and we were allowed to go up and see the cockpit and the view over to Everest. Me being lucky at being sat in the front row meant I went first and got the first view of the mountain through the front windows - certainly an impressive sight but it doesn't look much bigger than all the others around it which also look very impressive. The plane does a loop so everyone can see it from both sides of the plane so I have loads of photos all much the same of the mountain in the distance, should hit Facebook soon...

On returning to Kathmandu we drove out of town on what was to be my last trip on Archie, our not-always-that-reliable truck, towards the Tibet border and The Last Resort, an adventure holiday sort of place which I absolutely loved. You drive along a bumpy road following the river for 50 or so km, dodging parts of the road hit by landslides and then round a corner and see a footbridge crossing a huge gorge in the distance. This bridge is the only way to the resort and it isn't the most sturdy of things and has slats in the floor where you can look down 160m to the raging river below. Luckily I was desperate for the loo the first time I went over and I just kept looking ahead, otherwise I might not have got across!
Accommodation is in large tents with tin roofs over them, with beds, tables etc. so you feel close to nature but nicely away from it. There's a bar and large covered chilling out area where we spent most of our time when not doing activities, of which there were quite a few on offer...
The first morning 8 or 9 of us had signed up to do the canyon swing and bungee jump from the bridge, so I woke incredibly early in an excited/terrified mood. We were weighed for the bungee jump and then headed to the bridge. Pete went first, choosing to do the swing by his back so it feels like you're flying through the gorge. Seeing him jump and then just drop vertically did little to calm my nerves as it takes 3 or 4 seconds before the rope takes up the slack and starts to arrest your fall. Luckily I had the excuse that I was taking photos from the top so a few others went first and gradually you get used to the feeling of standing on a wobbly bridge (with schoolkids running along it as if it's the most normal thing in the World, which I guess it is for them) and the fact that you're about to jump off it. Eventually it came to my turn and I was strapped into the harness and reluctantly shuffled my way onto the platform, took a deep breath and waited for the jump master to count down and let go of me, when I took a small step forward and started to yell as loudly as I could, then let go of the rope (there's not much point in holding it as it's attached to your waist) and fell towards the floor. Seconds later I felt the rope tighten and start to swing me along the canyon and I felt a huge sense of relief that I wasn't actually dead. I swung on the rope a few times and then a rope was raised that I could pull myself to the side with. On reaching the side my first thought was, lets do a bungee jump too! So we trekked the 20 minutes up out of the gorge to the bridge again and prepared to jump.
Again I wussed out and waited until someone else had gone so Andrew had the pleasure of going first, doing a perfect dive towards the river below, then bouncing back the other side towards us on the bridge.
I was called over to put on the waist safety harness and then the tight ankle harness, then slowly shuffled towards the platform where I was clipped to the rope and helped to the edge. It was at this point I made the mistake of looking down between the slats on the platform and seeing again how far I was about to fall, so my plan for an elegant fall forwards and jump turned into one of my swimming pool stylee bend my knees and plop over the edge. As soon as I was off the platform for some reason I felt safe and absolutely loved it - seeing the ground rushing towards me and knowing there was nothing I could do about it so I might as well enjoy it! The rope slowly took up the tension and I was tilted downwards until I stopped and was then pinged right back up again towards the other side of the bridge, yelling like a madman all the way. After about 3 bounces I started to spin so I couldn't tell how high I was or where I was going but I was gently lowered towards the ground where I grabbed a pole held over the water and was dragged down to a table where the rope was taken off and I decided I really wanted to do that again. By the time I'd walked to the top of the gorge again I changed my mind and decided to do it in a few days time as it's such hard work walking up again!
We had the rest of the day to ourselves to recover and relax (and have a massage if we wanted, but after the last experience I decided not to!), then the next day we booked canyoning, where you wear a wetsuit and harness and slip, slide and abseil down a waterfall into the gorge. This involved 7 abseils of various lengths, the longest being 45m, and took about 2 hours. By the last one I had almost got used to it but still couldn't help holding on too tightly and getting cramp in my left hand (the one that doesn't need to hold anything). After that a few of us made use of the sauna and plunge pool to unwind before food.
Our last morning at the resort we got up early again to do some more jumps for those of us who wanted to. Kirsten and Elaine who hadn't jumped the last time had been persuaded to do it this time, so after a few people from another group had gone, they went, giving a most impressive display of screaming and peddling in the air as they dropped!
I chose to do another bungee but jumping backwards this time, so you see the bridge disappearing into the distance as you fall. I was terrified again but made it over to the platform, shuffled backwards until my feet were halfway over the edge, paused for a moment then heard the countdown - one, two, three, bungee! And leant back over the edge and kicked away from the platform, screaming at the top of my voice and then laughing as the rope caught me and I boinged back towards the bridge, spinning slowly in the air. What an experience!
We left the resort that morning but a few of us had signed up to go rafting so we left the rest of the group to take the truck back to Kathmandu and went in a bus with a load of other rafters. There were about 25 of us in 3 boats this time, with 2 kayaks with us for safety and a guide in every boat. After a long safety briefing covering falling in, turning upside down etc. I started to wonder how much worse it could be than our last time as the river looked similar, but as soon as we set off it became clear - the guides were complete nutters! With 3 boats every time we got to a rapid one would head towards the roughest part and see if it would flip (which none of them did in the end), with the other 2 boats ready to pull people out who floated downstream. On calmer bits we were encouraged (or pushed) to jump in the water, invade other boats and push them out, shout abuse at others ("Secretary, Follow Me, Make Me Tea" being my favourite) and generally mess around - it was great! If we get the chance to go again then we'll be looking to do it in a larger group as it was ten times better than our first trip.
When we finally finished we got on the bus which took us to Kathmandu, where we then went out for the night as Sam is leaving us to head home. My head still hurts now...

Surviving The River Wild

Managed to arrange white water rafting at the last minute one night for the next morning at an entirely reasonable twenty quid. Considering this included transport and it took us nearly 3 hours each way to get there and spent over 2 hours on the water and got a meal at the end I think we did well! Rafting was much smoother than I imagined, and much faster, wetter (for some reason I didn't bring dry clothes...) and fun! For an energetic sport I was impressed with the amount of time our guide shouted STOOP! and we just floated on down the river... Definitely going to try doing more either at the next place we're heading or in New Zealand.
A 6 or so hour drive along narrow mountain roads, spotting 5 or so trucks and coaches that had hit the rock wall or fallen over the edge towards the river below, got us into Kathmandu. We left the truck at a workshop and got taxis to the hotel, arriving just as the days monsoon rain fell, leaving us soaked and sheltering in a bar - so it's not all bad!
The area we're in is very touristy with shops selling knock off North Face gear, DVD's etc. everywhere, hippy stuff, and lots of restaurants - I love it! Chaotic but chilled out. More people trying to get money out of you again (or in one case today, Horlicks "I am student sir, I don't want money, my brother and sister very poor, need horlicks sir"!) or take you on a rickshaw ride and see all the sights. Ignored them and booked a flight to go and see Everest tomorrow morning, should get a good view and a nice picture or two...

Goodbye India, Hello Nepal

Spent a couple more days in Dharmsala, mostly eating pizza at the same restaurant each night as my stomach doesn't seem to agree with the curry round here. Lucklily the hotel has film channels so spent a day watching those whilst recovering from another mistake of a curry...

Didn't do much else there, dodged downpours and wandered around, just chilled out and then moved onto Rishikesh which happened to have a religious festival on where a few million people dressed in bright orange wander through the town, over a big bridge and on to a temple in the mountains over the course of 10 days or so. Watched them over a pizza and then went over the bridge too. Couldn't really see what the fuss was about but they seemed to be enjoying it...

Had a go at yoga at a class one morning, not quite sure I got what all the ummmmmmm..ing was about but felt suitably stretched afterwards and really enjoyed the 10 minute lie down at the end to recover from the most strenuous excersise I had done in a long long time! To get over that I went for a massage, I think "comprehensive" is the word to use, nothing escaped the treatment!

Headed back to Chandigarh for a night on the way to Corbett National Park where we stayed in a fantastic luxury lodge and got up one morning to go tiger spotting in the park. Didn't see one unfortunately, not helped by the drivers deciding that half an hour spent in the car park would be a good plan. Saw an elephant in someones yard, didn't get a ride on one as it's the wrong season and nobody was doing tours on them. Oh well, I went and had another shower and enjoyed the air conditioning a bit more instead.

After that headed towards Nepal, where we waited for 3 hours in the sun for the border bridge to open, then were told to stay in the next town as the passport office was closed for the night. Hopes were raised when the pizza hut sign was seen on the hotel wall, but it turns out they just nick all the western logos to drag tourists in.

Early start in the monsoon rain saw us back at the passport office and allowed into the country properly, then we headed for a little village in the mountains for a day where we found a nice restaurant that served buffalo burgers amongst other things. Did big tubs of ice cream there too, brilliant!

Then moved on to Pokhara where I'm sitting now. It's a touristy activity town (and has a place that serves beef burgers and steaks!) so we went out last night and had the first night on vodka in nearly 3 weeks! My head still hurts now, and in some ways I'm glad that we can't go parascending as it's the wrong season and they've all gone on holiday, as I think my vision would probably be more spinny than it should... So a few of us hired a boat and paddled around a lake for a while in the sunshine, before we head out to try and arrange white water rafting for tomorrow.

Overall impressions are that Nepal is much more pleasant than India. It's cleaner, people don't just chuck all their rubbish in the road or wherever they fancy, it's not so humid, the people aren't all trying to get your money off you (although there are obviously a few exceptions) and we've been left to our own business rather than drawing a crowd everywhere. And the views when the clouds clear are spectacular, sat on the roof seats yesterday was just incredible. Only thing to watch out for are the protests against the new government who've screwed up slightly and there's no fuel anywhere (we have big fuel tanks so filled up in India so we won't need more), but they're not aimed at us so we just stay clear and let it blow over. Should be fun once we get into more of the adventure sports that are on offer here...

I fancy chicken (in) Dharamsala

Made it back to Delhi on the train, someone grabbed my back pocket as I got on, not sure if they were trying to grab my wallet (which wasn't in there) or just fancied a quick grope - either way I was glad that we were going back to find our new truck!
Archie is a truck borrowed from Dragoman and doesn't quite compare with the luxury and quantity of toys we had on Penelope, but with only 15 of us now it's spacious enough and seems a bit quicker up the hills too, useful when the quickest things on the roads are buses and they'll overtake anything, anywhere to get past you!
Went to Chandrigah for a night and had a fantastic selection of curries at a restaurant with a wild west bar downstairs. Went to the Rock Gardens which were absolutely incredible - I thought they were almost better than the Taj Mahal (main reason being it cost 12p to get in, rather than the ridiculous 10 quid the Taj cost!). A guy just started making little sculptures one day and it's grown from that to an amazing place with huge waterfalls, temples, sculptures, models, swings and all sorts. Really wasn't expecting it which I think is why I liked it so much... if you find yourself there you have to go!
Spent 2 days on the truck braving tiny twisty mountain roads which seem packed with cargo trucks heading up to Dharamsala, the exiled home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government. Really cool little place, very different feel to the other places we've been so far in India, but quite touristy (in some ways a good thing, lots of italian restaurants and cake shops!). We've got 3 days here, our hotel looks over the Dalai Lamas home and temple and down the mountain, when it's clear you can see for miles into the valley below.
Went to see the temple today and managed to get there at prayer time which was quite nice as I could wander round and take photos without getting in anyones way. Monks seem very friendly, was almost tempted to get a "Free Tibet" shirt until I saw someone wearing one and how touristy they looked whilst wandering round here. Might just stick some money in a donation box instead...
Got a few days to explore here and chill out, a few people are doing a cookery course tomorrow, think I'll just go for a wander as there's a few routes around here to do, or find a cafe and a book and make myself at home...

Notes from a sweaty country...

Woke excitedly at 5 this morning to go see the sunrise. It didn't. Seems that during monsoon season you get quite a lot of cloud... Should have known after the sunset was obscured by cloud and thunder but oh well, we were one of the first into the grounds this morning. Well, would have been had I realised that you aren't allowed to take tripods in, so I had to go out and put that in a locker, and also that you need shoe covers, so I went and got one of those too, and again when I remembered I needed to get two of them. So after being searched by the same guy 3 times I made it in, behind a couple of hundred other people who had been queueing behind me. I don't think I'm all that awake in the mornings...

Didn't get any amazing photos of the place going a lovely orange colour in the sun, it was mostly grey but it is an impressive building. Shame they were cleaning the fountains too so there was no water. On the plus side a couple of us spent about an hour and a half taking silly cheesy photos all around the place (to follow when we next find internet...) which amused me no end!

General observations so far are:
1) Most people are very very friendly, even when doing no. 2
2) Everyone here is trying to rip you off - noticed this mainly when a woman rode past with a little child on the back who gave us a lovely smile and shouted "Hello money!" to us. Not hard to see why everyone's trying to get at your money when they appear to be taught that tourists are walking cash machines. One insistant kid this morning realised that he wasn't going to get any money out of me so moved onto asking for chewing gum and then shampoo (I did note that he needed some, but unfortunately I left that at the hotel...). Everyone is trying to sell postcards (I DON'T WANT A POSTCARD!) and tat round here, who buys this crap to keep everyone in business? (Oh wait, Americans?). Tuktuk drivers say one price and then make up a new one when you get to the destination (just say no and carry plenty of change as they won't give you the right money back)
3) Everything happens very slowly in a hugely rushed manner. To buy a loaf of bread yesterday I had to ask for it, get a receipt, pay for it, get another receipt, go back to the man with the bread and show him the receipt to actually end up with it in my hand. It took nearly 2 hours for someone to send a parcel, and 6 hours (including numerous tuktuk journeys and a free lunch) for Sam to arrange train tickets, and then the computer crashed and the power went out so the last 2 weren't booked until the evening! Then you should see the roads - everyone going fast, but getting places very very slowly with plenty of horn - my ears were ringing from being stuck in front of a bus this morning!

Despite this there's something I really like about it here, the next few weeks should be really fun once we get on the truck tomorrow... just got to endure a 3 hour train journey tonight on an overcrowded train again first, at least I know the air conditioning at the hotel works though!

Welcome to India!

After an early start leaving Bishkek we headed across the border to Kazakhstan, being careful not to mention Borat or mankinis to the guards! Slept most of the way to Almaty, apparently it's quite flat with some hilly bits if you were wondering. Had an interesting conversation with a guy at a fuel station, he started by asking how much his Merc would cost in London, then continued to tell us we didn't want to go to India as there's just elephants there - we should go to Moscow and go on the Metro as it's far better than the London Underground (he's been on that too, great traveller that he is...). Then he started asking about Osama Bin Laden (maybe he was related?). He liked it when I said George Bush was terrorist no. 2 though so I think we ended up on good terms!

Played Uno at the airport, then jumped on a plane (the first of the trip so far!) and landed in Delhi at about 11. Stepped out of the air conditioned airport and was covered in a layer of sweat within seconds - it seems monsoon season is probably not the best time to turn up here...

Apart from the incredible sweating from places I didn't know sweated, Delhi was great in a crazy way - went on TukTuks and Rickshaws and cheated death on many occasions, nearly got ripped off by just about anyone who talked to us, then collapsed at the hotel after about 3 hours outside. Had 2 curries, then got up at 5 this morning to get a taxi to the train station to train it to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal! I now hate trains even more than ever, having had a very fidgety guy's arse wedged on my shoulder for 3 hours. At least it was cheap.

Spent the rest of the day resting in our prison cell-like room (at least it has a fan), then wandered to the Taj Mahal for sunset. Shame it's cloudy and we missed it, fingers crossed for tomorrow mornings sunrise...

First impressions are that it's quite big and that's about it, but our vantage point had a big wall and a tree in the way, hopefully it'll look more impressive tomorrow when we battle our way in there to have a look around...

Back in Bishkek, again...

Spent a few days in the mountains, stayed at a very busy campsite as they wouldn't let us camp where we wanted, but managed to get away and do a hike up towards a glacier, camping in a fantastic spot with nobody for miles around. Didn't get to the glacier as the bridge across the river had washed away but got upto about 3000m which was pretty hard work.
If we get our visas this afternoon then we'll be taxi-ing to Almaty in Kazakhstan and then flying to Delhi tomorrow...

Finally some photos!

First, some self indulgent shots of me in various places (caution recommended, some dancing photos)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123458&l=58810&id=223300361

Turkey to Kyrgyzstan, small camera, Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123471&l=98ce2&id=223300361

Turkey to Kyrgyzstan, small camera, Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123618&l=2c7fc&id=223300361

Turkey to Kyrgyzstan, big camera, Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123620&l=6ed8c&id=223300361

Turkey to Kyrgyzstan, big camera, Part 2 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123622&l=f2900&id=223300361

Enjoy!

Nothing much else to add, still in Bishkek, heading to the mountains for the weekend tomorrow lunchtime after handing in more visa applications, then back here to hopefully collect them next monday/tuesday and then onto Kazakhstan and India...

Latest news...

Back in Bishkek now with Pete, he's had a nightmare with visas so we're spending another 4 or so days here to sort them out. Quite relieved that the Pakistan visas are a no go as apparently the Taliban have gone off on one over there so we wouldn't have been allowed in anyway. Of course, now everyone wants to go to Kazakstan so the embassy is really busy. Overall it means our flights have been delayed by a few days and Pete will have a 3 day drive down to us in Delhi when he gets there (but we're staying in a nice hotel so it's all good!).

Nothing much else to report, we're off to an American pub again for food (bacon cheeseburgers, mmmm......), and after last time maybe another game of spin the bottle...

Yet again pictures are not easy to upload as internet here is so slow, as we've got a few days here I'll try to get a select few up if we find somewhere good.

Notes from "The Campest Straight Guy" on the trip...

Another quick post as everyone is queueing up behind me on the only computer in this village. In Krgyzstan at the moment and I love it - mountains like in Georgia but with an Asian feel kind of sums it up... We've had 2 lots of 3 days bush camping in the mountains, both just stunning locations at 3000m and 2000m respectively, we're at the start of the Himalayas here. Just fantastic to chill out, play with kites, get sunburnt and enjoy the scenery. Have had a go at riding horses, amazing fun, especially the more expensive ones that actually did what I was telling them to do... The locals organised a game of goat polo for us too which was incredible to watch - they brought the goat over (christened "Dunfor" by us), chopped the poor things head and legs off and then spent the next 2 hours fighting over it on horseback! Certainly shows that I need more practice on a horse...


Had a few nights in the capital Bishkek to sort out visas, unfortunately it will take a month to issue them which screws up all of our plans, so we're going north to Borat country for a few days, then flying to Delhi in India and borrowing a truck from another company as there's just no way to get our lovely Penelope into India (China have said no to groups completely now). Still will be great fun but we loose a lot of creature comforts - charging sockets, boats, bikes, kites and a load of other stuff that we filled her with before leaving. On the plus side I can send some of my crap back and might actuallybe able to carry my bag from now on... We're also loosing 4 people who have decided to do China on their own (strangely they let individuals in, but no trucks, and Pete has looked at every way around the problem!)

To explain the title of this post, we had a fancy dress night where names were picked out of a hat and you had to buy a costume at the market for that person. Well, I ended up with a lovely stripey blue skimpy top, boxers, a rubber ring and a sign saying "For Sail". Add that to the pink toenails (don't ask) and it seems you get "The Campest Straight Guy I know", thanks Kirsten!

Think that's all for now, anyone thinking of a funky holiday destination, give Kyrgyzstan a go - I love it!

PS. I drove the truck today! New career plan is to be a truck driver - it's amazing. And before you ask (Andy!), no I didn't crash it/bend it/break it etc.

The last few weeks in summary...

Made it over the mountain in 6 taxis, "whitebeard" our driver came in first place despite some stiff competition from "goldteeth" behind, apparently 160km/h was seen on one speedo! Might not sound like much, but you should see the roads and how everyone else drives round here - the horn is the first thing anyone uses, and the brakes the last!

Got a bit of time here in the Fergana Valley to try and remember where we've been since we left Baku and crossed the Caspian Sea. This 8-10 hour crossing turned into a 68 hour, erm, stay on a boat. We reached the port without any problems but they wouldn't let us come in as there's some sort of arguement going on between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, so we spent 2 days bobbing around and getting cabin fever. If all the food ran out apparently I'm for desert as I'd be nice and sugary! Luckily the kitchen sold vodka, without it I'm not sure how we would have survived...

Finally got into Turkmenistan and met Atta our guide who'd been running around trying to extend visas for us, then headed for Ashgabat the capital - a huge marble city with loads of photos and statues of the ex-president, police and guards everywhere and no local people - I guess they spoil the view. Went to the market out of town where you could buy pretty much anything. Was tempted by a camel but settled for a fly swat. 2 days in a very nice hotel with a great pool whilst the crew tried to extend our visas (not possible, we had to get new ones for 2 days for about 40 quid), with a nightclub downstairs which seemed to be mostly filled by hookers and a strange russian guy who just danced madly in front of a mirror - it was an interesting place...

Headed out into the desert where it got really hot - 40c+ - and saw a flaming gas crater, left over from the russians trying to pipe out gas, some sort of accident happened so they left and there's no way to put it out, so it carries on burning. Got some cool photos, but again they'll have to wait as I can't plug my camera into this computer! Got to the crater in a 6wd Russian truck which was great fun - we had to sit on and around a big water tank in the back and hold on tight!

Few other bush camps, one by a river which was a relief after the heat, had a play with some of Tims kites but didn't get the big ones out just yet...

Crossed into Uzbekistan and met Jalal our guide, we had 2 days bush camping by a big lake, stopping after the track collapsed under the back of the truck and it sunk to the axle. Lots of effort was made to lift it (to be honest I was sat in the lake at the time, too many cooks etc.) but Jalal wandered to the nearest road and persuaded another truck to come and pull us out which made it a lot easier. Got the inflatable boats off the roof and spent a day chilling out and playing in the lake (and getting lightly sunburnt...), and had my first go at kite surfing, or rather getting dragged face first through every reed bed I could find in the lake, then crashing it in deep water and having to drag it back to shore! Going to need some practice at that, but it was amazing fun!
Saw little scorpions, snakes, camel spiders, lizards, and various other wildlife all around where we were camping, as well as inquisative locals who came from miles around to see the kites.

Moved onto Khiva, then Bukhara and then Samarkand, all ancient cities with big city walls, markets, mosques, minarets and all that sort of thing. Some genuinely amazing places - I was far more impressed with these than the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - with beautiful blue tiles and fancy patterns, though unfortunately nearly all of them you have to pay to go into and then get hassled to buy stuff from the shops they've put inside, if only I had room for all those carpets, Koran holders and other nick-nacks. Had a few fab nights out, normally taking over most of the club as they were fairly empty - photos will show far better than I can explain these nights but they've all been wicked fun! The currency in these places is mad - 2600som is a pound so the prices for drinks look scary but most things are only a quid or two. Unfortunately the biggest note is 1000, so you end up with wads of cash and it takes hours to pay a bill as it takes so long to be counted.

Moved onto Tashkent (as a russian guy we met in Samarkand said "civilisation" compared to the ancient cities) and went to the Chelsea Arms, a pub that Roman Wholebransabitch (the guy that owns Chelsea) owns, as well as a load of hotels around there. Felt thoroughly ripped off with cocktails at over 5 quid a go (and they didn't taste alcoholic, we felt rather annoyed!), apparently last time Pete came through it was so cheap and the drinks so good that they started a water fight in the place, thinking about it that's probably why the prices have gone up and they wouldn't serve us anything nice...
-Ignore this bit Mum!
Carried onto a restaurant where we were ripped off again and then onto a place recommended by Pete, the FM bar, which as well as serving very cheap drinks (3 vodkas, 2 cokes and a sprite for less than 2 quid!) is a "seedy but classy" lap dancing club where for 2000 som you can get a 5 minute dance - absolutely hilarious, though we were disappointed that they wouldn't let us have a dance on their pole on the stage, I don't think we met their height restriction as most of the girls in there were about 7ft tall...
-Carry on mum!
Left there and some businessmen (typical, we go to a club and pick up a load of guys, I think we're getting something wrong here...) who work around here told us the best place to go for a nightclub, then got us taxis, took us there and bought quite a few people drinks. They even offered to do a city tour the next morning - it's fantastic how nice people are around here! Got into a huge club decked out like an Egyptian palace playing a mix of euro-dance stuff and asian dance, with a bit of Celine Dion chucked in for good measure (which funnily enough almost cleared the dancefloor immediately). Fell out of there about 4 and taxi'd back to the hotel, (where Pete received the mother of all wedgies - his boxers turning into a lovely frock type thing), then tried to chuck people in the pool until the security guy told us to be quiet, quite a night!

That brings us up to about now, I've probably missed loads out but I left my diary at the hotel. China has decided not to let us do our route, what with the Tibet situation, the olympics, the earthquake etc. so we're heading over the Karakoram highway (highest road in the world apparently) into Pakistan, getting visas in Islamabad and then into India, where we'll hopefully go Elephant trekking looking for Tigers, see the Taj Mahal and maybe do a flight to see Everest as we won't be able to get to base camp (as it's in Tibet), go to Nepal and Kathmandu, then fly from Calcutta to Bangkok and use local transport to do Thailand etc. until the truck catches us up from being shipped across. Won't be a true overland route, but what can you do when the great big country in the middle says you're not coming in!

Moving onto Kyrgystan tomorrow where we're bush camping 10 days out of 12, luckily it's more mountainous there so it should be cooler and we'll be able to go trekking, horse riding, stay in yerts etc. which should be a fab experience. No idea when the next update will be so if you want a more thorough, regularly updated (and probably far more amusing) blog then have a look at Christies one: http://intrepidlittleexplorer.blogspot.com/ as she's got her laptop with her and has been far better at writing hers than I have, there's a couple more linked from hers too.

Just a quickie...

Still alive, but internet access is so rare and slow (and Turkmenistan seemed to block Blogger) beyond the Caspian sea I haven't really had a chance to update this.

Currently on our last 2 days of 12 in Uzbekistan - great place with a great guide who's shown us all the sights - ancient cities, mosques, mausoleums etc. as well as a nightclub or two, still recovering from last nights one.

The truck has to transit through Tajikistan tomorrow whilst we go up over a mountain pass in taxis as apparently it's safer that way... wish me luck!

Bush camping quite a bit in Kygydfgjdshgjkshgksjhdg-stan so proably won't be able to update this for another week or so, Bishkek apparently has fast internet (but then here was supposed to as well) so might get some photos on then, taken about 3500 so far so there's a couple of good ones to show.

Another brief update

Currently in Baku, Azerbaijan after spending the night camping out in a desert-y place with mud volcanoes gently bubbling around us. Now staying in a hotel for a night or two whilst the crew try to get us and the truck onto an old oil tanker/ferry across the Caspian sea - apparently they can't take oil and people so we have to hire out the whole thing for ourselves. Hoping the weather's good so we can sleep up on deck and watch the stars...

Baku is where all the oil stuff happens, coming in this morning there's oil rigs in the sea, derricks(why's everyone round here called Derrick?) pumping pretty much everywhere and a big mess inbetween. Apparently it's one of the most polluted places in the world - lovely! Baku seems quite nice though, quite upmarket as there's so much oil money around so lots of shops and restaurants to look round from our brief wander earlier (we were looking for a laundry as everything's getting a bit whiffy!).

Have spent the last 4 nights bush camping in various places, all of them fantastic in their own ways. Had one hot night by a river so spent a while swimming, whilst another one was further up in the hills.

We were quite sorry to say goodbye to Tamuna and Zaza our guides in Georgia - it's a fantastic place and they really helped us to make the most of it. Haven't got time to detail everything now so I'll try to put a post together about that sometime, but it was great, the people were so friendly and hospitable I really couldn't believe it and the scenery was incredible. Good wine too, and Vodka at less than 2 quid a bottle!

Will try to update photos and things at our next stop, the internet is so slow here it's not going to work.

Those of you not on Facebook can see my albums so far here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102305&l=455ec&id=223300361

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113737&l=65979&id=223300361

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113765&l=a888e&id=223300361

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114697&l=fa592&id=223300361

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114709&l=6e75e&id=223300361

Enjoy!

A load of updates in one

Finally found some internet access so here's the last update which should have been done a few days ago, since I wrote this on the laptop then we've spent a few days in Georgia which has been fantastic, but I need to write all about that yet, so here's some more about Turkey...


Since the last proper update we’ve left Hungary, gone through Bulgaria (much the same as Hungary but you start to notice a more olde-worlde feel to the place) and entered Turkey, a task which took about 4 hours as they’ve changed the rules about entry for large groups. We parked up and had lunch inbetween borders whilst Pete worked out how to get us through with the border people. Had to empty all our bags out and show them all the food boxes etc. as it was May Day and there has been trouble with people setting off rockets and stuff before. Luckily there was none of that this time!

Istanbul was great, saw most of the sights, stayed up drinking one night with the barman to see the sunrise, then found that it was cloudy! Turkish baths were great, even if the translation was rather difficult whilst we tried to work out what we had paid for.

Our stop on the black sea was slightly marred by rain, I’m sure it’s a lot more attractive in the sunshine, but it was a good chance to have a relaxing 2 nights with little to do other than catch up with diary writing and wander into the sleepy town. Highlight was buying and ice cream and the smiley chap behind the counter saying “Eenglish?”, me saying yes and then him shaking my hand vigourously and introducing himself as Akmahd I think, after telling him my name we ran out of conversation so I left to eat my ice cream, but it put a smile on my face. People are getting friendlier and friendlier all the time now, today we stopped to collect wood and a chap in a truck stopped on the other side of the road. We were wondering if we were nicking his wood from the side of the river but it turns out he was offering us a hand to chop it up. With 8 of us already doing it we declined, but it was a nice offer. We’ve just stopped to buy some meat from a shop and were invited into a café for tea, so about 20 of us went in for tea, coffee and orange tea (tastes lovely, like hot fanta) and they refused to let us pay for it – brilliant!

From the black sea we headed inland for Goreme, a very touristy place but when you get there you start to see why – it’s a cross between the Grand Canyon and the desert set from Star Wars. Our campsite was at the top of a hill and we had a great sunset after dinner. It also had hot showers and nice proper toilets – becoming a rarer sight now as “squatters” become the norm. The majority of us stayed in the caves here as they had mattresses and there was a fire in the room next door. Also, being underground we could have music on and drink all night without waking anyone up! We met another overland group (EOE I think) on a huge 6 wheel drive Mercedes truck with space for about 35 people, who are actually going all the way to Sidney on an 8 month trip, though on a different route to us. After initially suffering some “truck envy” at the size of theirs, we soon came to find that we had the better truck (in my opinion) with a younger group who are much more up for a drink and a laugh (and of course, proper chairs). They even had 2 kids with them in their group of 25 who had been told that alcohol was evil – where’s the fun in that!

The next day we did a local tour, going to see all the funny shaped rocks, ancient cave villages dug into the sides of valleys and an underground village with space for 3000 people to live down there on 6 levels – all carved out of the soft rock. There are 6 caves like this in one town but they think that at one point there could have been up to 1000 large cave settlements in the area, they just haven’t been excavated yet. Also went to a pottery museum to see how they make plates and things, then were encouraged to buy stuff from their shop. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone did, but we got a free apple tea out of it!

Wandered into town the next day with a few people and ended up having lunch and a few drinks with an American girl on holiday who we met on the walk down. Not much to do in town when it’s raining, but found a couple of quad biking places and booked up for the next day.

That evening we went to a traditional Turkish night along with a load of other tourists – for 35 turkeys (less than 15 quid) we got taken there in minibuses, all the food we could eat, entertainment and best of all – all the drink we could drink! Sounded like a challenge…
Had the choice of Wine, Beer, Raki (local Sambuca-like drink), Vodka and soft drinks, and when a bottle was finished they just replaced it with another one – amazing! Saw Whirling Dervishes, religious people who get closer to God by spinning round in circles which was quite impressive (though would have been more impressive after a few Rakis), then traditional Turkish dancers who were fantastic. One dance involved finding a woman a husband, with different people showing off different dances. She then went for the one with the biggest beard and then he was shaved in the middle of the room. Later when we all joined in the dancing Mike was dragged out to do the same and although he put a good effort in with press ups and a show of his muscles, the silly cow chose someone else. Then it was the turn of the belly dancer who was brilliant, after a bit of a show she then got people out of the audience and Kirsten was coerced into having a go, then Terry (who took much less coercing, in fact he ran up there when she asked for volunteers) had a go, which was hilarious! Video of that one to follow…
Went back to the cave for more drinking with some of the EOE group, somehow managed to get through 1½ bottles of Vodka between a couple of us and ended up in bed at 4 - luckily it was only in the next room. What a brilliant night!

Next morning was spent in bed, then into town about 1:30 for food before quad biking at 3. Had over 2 hours, 8 quads with 3 guides and only 55 turkeys each (about 20 quid). Could get the bikes upto 50-60km/h, slide them all over the place and do donuts in the dust on the tracks – absolutely brilliant fun, and we even saw some sights along the way, though for most of those we just said no lets carry on driving. Andrew managed to flip his by sliding into a ditch at 40km/h but luckily no damage was done to the bike or himself! Quiet night as we had an early start planned…

Next morning we were up by 5 and met at 5:30 to go down to the Hot Air Balloon launch site, where there were already 6 balloons being inflated. 12 of us went in one and it slowly took off. Unfortunately there wasn’t much wind so it took a while to get anywhere, then we went down and round some of the rock formations before heading up towards our campsite in a zig-zag fashion, eventually close enough to wake people in tents up by shouting at them! Shame there was a tree in the way as we could have got a good photo of Penelope from the air. Landed just outside, had champagne and walked back in. Great place to do it because of the rock formations and the sheer number of balloons that go up – there were at least 25 up with us gently drifting about.

Headed off about 10 that morning and had a days driving through varying countryside – from the rocks and warmth of Cappadocia to green valleys and high mountain passes as we headed north again. Camped out in the middle of nowhere, the only lights we could see were that of a car that went up the other side of the valley that evening. Had really nice chicken done on the fire and had an early night.

8:30 leave this morning and up some more mountain passes, even had some snow falling at 2200m and still some left on the floor – certainly not shorts weather yet!

A day in the life of Penelope...

For those of you wondering, no I haven’t taken to calling myself Penelope, that’s the name of our faithful 20-year-old big blue truck with over 500,000 miles on the clock.

Thought I’d give anyone who’s still reading this an idea of our daily life because it’s now become routine to us but it was interesting whilst getting used to it. First off, there is no normal day – it depends where we are and whether we’re staying somewhere for a few days or moving on, but I’ll try to get the important bits in.
A travelling day starts with the breakfast crew getting up about half an hour before everyone else to get breakfast ready. This is normally cereal, toast done on a grill over the gas burners, bread, tea, coffee etc. Sometimes scrambled eggs and other bits, I’m not 100% sure as I normally stay for a lie in. Food is done on a rota of 5 groups, each one stays on to do breakfast and lunch until they’ve done dinner. If we’re in a city and eating out in the evenings then that can mean the unfortunate group doing breakfast 3 days in a row but it all evens out over time. The food group also does the washing up for that meal, but everyone does their own plate and cutlery. Everything is just left to drip dry (or if we’re in a hurry then it gets a quick flap about) as tea towels spread germs – going to have to remember that one for at home…
Once food is done everything is packed away – there are groups (separate from food groups) which are set for each leg of the journey – the first is the 43 days from London to Baku. I’m on roof loading and unloading with Andrew and Michael, so when all the tents are packed away in the morning we have to hoik them onto the roof and pack them under the tarpaulin, making sure it’s sealed from the rain as otherwise the tents get wet and so does Pete’s bed! Others are on loading and unloading bags from the rear locker, cleaning, general camp setup, security, waste, barperson and general truck wallha/biatch. Most people are happy to help out with other jobs if they’ve finished theirs and we’ve got the camp setup routine down to a fairly quick, smooth operation now.
This gets us to the stage of having the truck packed (depending on where we need to get to, between 7:30 and 9:30 is usually set as leaving time), so everybody piles on and the security team make sure that we’re all present (can’t go leaving people all across the world!). Nobody has a set seat, it’s a free for all each day so nobody gets bored of sitting with the same people. Generally the call for an iPod to plug into the stereo comes next, there’s quite a variety of music on board, some really good, some mine. We’ve got 6 big speakers on the truck so the Vengaboys and Village People can be heard in the fine quality that they deserve! The next challenge is normally the arrangement of various electrical equipment that needs charging – there are 3 12v sockets and a 3 pin mains type, and with all the cameras, iPods, phones, computers (one of which I’m using now as we drive over a 2200m mountain pass in Turkey, with the odd bits of snow outside the window) and bits on board they’re always being swapped round. We’ve got games like Uno which are a good laugh around the tables in the back, along with some more obscure games (Pass The Pigs anyone?) which haven’t been played so much.
Usual practice is 2-3 hours driving before a toilet stop and leg stretch at a service stop. Pete and Tim normally swap driving then before carrying on. If we’re at a scenic part and someone wants photos or a loo stop is requested then we stop earlier. Lunch is normally at a pleasant spot sometime between 12 and 1, setup crew get the tables out and washing up bowls are filled from the onboard water tank. Food group get it ready with the crew’s assistance. Normally local bread (so far really good) with meat/salami, cheese, tomatoes and all that salad-y stuff and Ketchup/HP Sauce! Again it depends where we are as to the local specialities. Drinks are water, soft drinks from the bar/fridge or anything we’ve bought ourselves from a shop. Plates are washed and flapped, food is put away and everything packed up again. Normally we’re stopped for 30-45mins and have enough food for 2nds or 3rds – easily enough to keep us going until tea.
Set off again with the odd stop here and there for loos/food/drink/scenery/wood and if bush camping we aim to find somewhere about 5ish, or whenever it’s raining. This is so we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves from locals and so that it’s still light when we set up camp. The rain just seems to be following us around; thankfully it never lasts long! If we’re camping at a site then we can arrive later.
Tents are set up once we’ve chucked them off the roof, the normal ones are hefty a-frame ones which have enough room for 2 people comfortably and keep the rain off really well. They’re quick to set up when the ground is soft, less than 5 minutes. If it’s rocky then they’re a pain as you can’t get the pegs to hold. We also have lightweight dome tents for if we’re hiking but we’ve only used them once so far and found them harder to set up, smaller and more leaky if they’re not set up right so we’ll avoid them where possible. The a-frame ones are much thicker so I can sleep when the sun comes up too, much better when we’re not in a hurry to go anywhere!
We have an awning which pulls out over the cooking area and if the weather is really bad then a mess tent which fits over there and keeps the rain off from the sides too. We’ve done fires where possible as we can do food on there which makes a change from the gas hobs and keep warm when the sun goes down. The crew always help with the dinner as they’re experienced in cooking up a treat on the side of a truck, when I’ve been on food group it’s been easier to help out here and there and wash up than try to cook anything. Despite our “assistance”, I think most people would agree that the food done on the truck has tasted better than the majority of restaurants we’ve been to!
Depending on the preceding nights we’ll have a few drinks round the fire on the comfy chairs (no collapsible stool nonsense for us!), and sometimes we’ll have lots of drinks from the on board bar/fridge. This is worked out by Jen at the moment, and started with everyone chipping in $10 and then as we take stuff from it it’s marked down. Every week or so we pay off our tab which then is used to buy the next lot. This system works well apart from when we drink so much we forget to mark them down, luckily this has only happened once and us naughty offenders were charged $3 each to cover the missing ones – oops.
People wander off to bed at different times, we’ve got to the point where the people who stay up later set their tents up a distance from the ones who go earlier so generally there aren’t many problems.
That concludes a “typical” day in the life of Penelope the big blue Odyssey truck. Obviously when in cities we have been staying in hostels or campsites for a couple of days and making use of their showers, washing facilities, internet etc. though as we go further East the hostels dry up and I think the plan is to go to the occasional hotel in-between bush camps. There have been a number days where we haven’t driven anywhere and have just gone out exploring the local towns, or sat around nursing hangovers…

Still watching?

Just a quick one to say I'm still here and will try to get a decent post together on the truck tomorrow, though we're free camping for 2 days so internet could be difficult...
In Cappadocia in Turkey at the mo and it's great, looks like Star Wars desert-y type place and went quad biking today, hot air ballooning tomorrow morning which should be incredible!

This weeks update...

Haven't had much time for updating this recently, mainly laziness on my part. Brief summary so far is...
Spent a few more days in Romania, absolutely fantastic country which I really want to visit again, stayed in a hostel type place with a massive living room with billiards and a bar, though we couldn't use it. Did some free camping and had a campfire out in the middle of the mountains. Drank more, went to Bucharest and drank a hell of a lot more in a club followed by much dancing (YMCA and Motorhead make a good mix?) and trying to walk home despite having no idea which way we were going. Went to the Peoples Palace in town and walked around it, took about 45 minutes as it's so huge.
Spent the night free camping in Bulgaria by a big lake, got one of the canoes out and a few people went for a paddle. Had a great BBQ then carried on into Turkey the next day. Took 5 hours to get through customs as they've changed the rules again and it was May day so they wanted us to take everything out to make sure we weren't going to cause riots in Istanbul. Staying in a hostel in the city centre at the moment, went to see the Blue Mosque (not actually blue) and Hagia Sophia (not as impressive as I was led to believe), went for a cruise on a ferry, wandered round the Bazaars and haggled on a few things and just enjoyed Istanbul. So much going on it's all quite hectic and everyone seems to be in a rush, it's quite nice to just sit around and watch what's going on.
Ended up drinking until 3:30 last night with the barman on the roof so stayed in bed 'til 2 today, went for a pizza for lunch and then to a Turkish Baths. Never been so glad of a cold shower after sitting in the sauna for 10 minutes, had a scrub/massage wash thing and I'm feeling fantastically relaxed and clean now. Sat in the hostel with a few others having a drink or two deciding whether to head into town to find a club whilst Bob Marley sings away on the Ipod, life is good!

Heading up to the Black Sea tomorrow to stay for 2 nights by a beach, hopefully for some surfing and messing around in the sea, then down to Goreme for a few more days...

Probably the most inaccurate blog ever

Having actually looked at the route we followed yesterday, it turns out that I'm now in Sigasori - spelling probably also wrong - , Romania, not Hungary as previously posted. Also we went through Slovakia, not Slovenia - which idiot names two countries so similarly?

Early start yesterday, left about 8 and spent the whole day on the road. Arrived about 10 in the evening at the hotel - or sometime like that as we've crossed another timezone, soft matresses were very welcome, as was the warm-ish shower this morning and a bit of room to sort out bags and damp stuff. Crossing the border into Romania a smiley chap came and checked our passports and laughed at a good few of them. Saw the first of many horse drawn carts battling with trucks on the roads and got off the motorways into the slow hilly roads which we crawl up. Friendly Irish/Romanian chap offered to show us the way through a town even though the road signs pointed the right way anyway. Started to wonder if we'd be lead off to a dark track and mugged but 23 of us on 3 of them sounded good odds so wasn't too fussed, after an hour or so they pulled off and waved goodbye so they were nice after all! Rained again on the way in, we seem to be dragging it around with us.

Bright sunshine this morning though, sandals were brought out at last and we strolled up to Vlad Tepes aka Dracula's old house. He was the nice chap who liked to impale his enemies on wooden spikes through the spine so they took about 48 hours to die - lovely. Got given a guided tour around various places by a chap Sam got talking to in the bar last night, went up a clock tower, saw some more instuments of torture - not as good as the Prague ones though - and had lunch for less than 4 quid. Brilliant!

Off for pizza later which should be equally cheap,a few drinks then off to bush camp near Draculas castle tomorrow, hopefully be able to have a campfire out in the middle of nowhere.

Apologies for any smelling pisstakes, this keyboard is possibly the most useless I have ever used. On the plus side there is a rather exciting Russian sounding tune on the stereo at the moment.

One week in...

Have been rubbish at keeping this updated, been too busy exploring various european cities to find Internet cafes.

Have been keeping a logbook but have left that in the truck so I'll see what I can remember...

Been camping all the time, first night in a hotel tomorrow in somewhere beginning with S in Hungary where Dracula lived (or still lives?).

Prague was great, had 3 nights there. Thought it was very tacky and touristy to start with but the second day I wandered off and found some much nicer parts. Went up a tower to see the view, had an ice cream and got lost in the sunshine. Had a flaming absinthe in the evening, I think I can still taste it now...

Long day in the truck yesterday to get into Hungary, (had a McFlurry as we came in!), whizzed through Slovenia which looked much the same as CZ and Hungary really, lots of wind farms. Set tents up in the rain then had a noisy night drinking in the truck and finding out all sorts of gossip from various people... Got up stupidly early this morning to see Budapest - wandered a bit to find some caves/sewers but they were closed so we continued to a thermal baths place and spent 3 or so hours floating about in lovely hot water. 36 degrees was about right, but the best was outside where you could sit in the rain and get battered by hot water jets!

Not got round to sorting any photos out yet so for now have a look at http://odysseyoverland.blogspot.com/ as they've got a few pictures up now. Hopefully I'll have time to sort some out on the truck tomorrow and remember what else we've been up to...

Nous sons ici!

Or should that be Wier sind hier?

Only on day 3 and having a fantastic time - the people I hadn't already met are great, everyone else packed just as much as I had and our first stop in France was to stock up on alcohol! Sun has been shining ever since we left, had an ice cream walking into town this morning, went to a chocolate factory (free samples very much lacking unfortunately) and then sat outside and had pizza (not sure how scarce they'll be later on so making the most of it!). Off to a traditional German place later for food and beer so that should cover todays dose of culture. Hoping to get up the Dom cathedral spire for sunset too.

Food on the truck has so far been brilliant though I have warned people to wait until I start having anything to do with it! Off to Bamberg tomorrow, will update this sometime soon...

Goodbye England...

...Hello World!

Less than an hour to go before I chuck everything in the car and head off. Finished packing at 1 last night and so far don't think I've forgotten anything essential...

Sun is shining so lets hope that keeps all the way to Belgium tonight!

What it's all about

It probably makes sense to outline the plan, so here it is:

25 people, 6 months, 20-or-so countries, 1 big truck called Penelope and a whole lot of adventures/fun/experiences etc. Who knows, I might even "find myself" on the way...

There's more detail on the countries we're visiting on the Odyssey page here which will save me trying to list all the places we're going, as really I should be packing now. 1 more day of work, 2 days of saying goodbye to people, Monday to pack and Tuesday we're off, leaving about lunchtime from Dover.

The exciting first post!

Nah, it's not really...

Having never blogged anything before, we'll have to see how this comes out. Wasn't quite sure what to call it - Overland Rich, Get lost Rich, Truck off Rich, Rich-Goes-All-The-Way-To-Australia-On-A-Great-Big-Truck-Then-To-New-Zealand-Too - so settled for the Super Furry Animals inspired "Rich Around The World". As you can probably tell, I'm not a natural at these things so chances are that will change. Regularly.