Sydney to Hobart yatch race

I was down at the docks having a few drinks at T42 on thursday night. See the little white sail in the middle? Thats the winning yatch 'Wild Oats' crossing the finishing line just in front of the Hobart marina after 2 days sail across the Bass Strait from Sydney.

And here is a couple more photos of Elisabeth St pier I took earlier that day.. One from inside the bar.










And another one of a couple of boats up front.

A few more buddies

Boxing day I met with Liam and Chris, here is a pic of us having (liquid) lunch at salmanca square. The mid-day sun is so bright in Tasmania the shade is hiding half my face and all of Chris'




And a cute photo of me and Katerina down on the docks catching up quickly for a couple drinks on christmas eve as she was flying out to Brisbane on the 26th.

Hellooo!

Yep still around, not much time to sit down and write anything, maybe I'll be able to do it when I'm at a hostal with free access to internet but at the moment I've been staying with mum and Javier. Catching up with lots people who are also down in hobart for christmas. There was a Friends' School 10 year reunion last Saturday and managed to see a whole lot of faces I hadn't seen in a long time. Josh and Oddie are going to be in Whistler in february, thats in addition to Will and Emerson, so it'll be quite a few guys from school there I really have no excuse to miss out (even if I'm having too much fun in Buenos Aires). Anyway, I'll write some more when I have some time to sit down!!... Happy X-Mas and News Years!!

Christmas Eve with Miggie and Kiwi

We had some lunch on Christmas eve with my brother Miguel and his wife Kristy who both life in tassie and work at the uni, here are some pics of the family reunion...







And another one. Smile!!

Friday Nite at Salamanca

Salamanca was packed with people out on the piss this last Friday.. here is a shot of Knoppies fairly early in the evening with the big fence to contain the party.. This is before things started getting messy.





One of Javi and Tessa at Maldinis.







And another one of the hairy bushman with me and Kirsty (and the crowd behind).






Some things never change... like a stop at Mikonos early in the morning to quash the munchies.

The Fam & Friends

Here are a few more pics I've taken the last couple of days. Its been fairly hard to find time to sit down at an internet cafe.. And I haven't taken many pics either because I've been busy catching up with friends and forgot to bring my camera.. Just seen Courtney, Wacky, Emma & Jane Brown, Julia who I bumped into in Sandy bay, Pablo and Cesar at the Queens head last night listening to a Cuban band, and various others - oh Scott who I saw at Retro's (almost forgot) .. Maybe I can start remembering to take my camera with me.

Up there on the right is my mum who is down in Hobart for a month. She is tucking into some spanish tapas at Franciscos in Battery Point. We've all coincided in Tassie this year for Christmas but coming and going at different times.

There is also one of me and hairy brother Javi, and him sitting down with a coffee over a game of cards. He's been in tas for about a month chilling out with friends and is going back to Europe (me thinks) sometime in February when the visa runs out.

Well its friday and I'm going off to Knoppies tonight and sit out on the lawns with Courtney and Wacky and some other ppl, everyone in Hobarts going to be down there so lets see who else has come home for X-mas.

Bush-fires around Hobart

This is a photo of Mt Wellington I took from Battery Pt (Just opp Jackman McCross bakery) the day I arrived. There's been fires all around the east coast because of the heat (As any australian knows gum trees burn very easily in dry weather because of the oil in the leaves). Haven't heard of any homes in Hobart that have burnt down but I think the small towns around the east coast of Tassie haven't been so lucky.

Arrive in Australia

Hello!! Finally arrived in Sydney airport after a 10 hour flight. Couldn't help myself to some twisties just off the plane. He-he.. This is the only place you can get the little bastards.

Back in Hong Kong

Sitting at a cafe in Nathan road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Its about 18 degrees here, sunny, green, clean and really beautiful. I arrived yesterday morning after a 12 hour journey on the slepper bus to the China/HK border and had a really long siesta asleep in my hotel. I decided to stay in Kowloon peninsula instead of the Island proper.. I think I kind of prefer it here than Hong Kong island.

Met some dude on the bus who's from London and been staying in china for 3 months taking Kung-Fu lessons. Other than that it was pretty uneventful journey away from Yangshuo. I though I would regret travelling all the way into rural china and then all the way back into HK but I had a lot of fun and I think it was definately worth it. HK is ok but it gets boring pretty fast, there is not much to do here other than shopping for stuff I don't need, and eating yummy wonton noodles and chicken congee (see photo on the right, looks like baby food, actually it probably IS baby food, oh well tastes great so who cares about the strange looks), and (I guess) going out to the local bars and meeting the expats who live here. Still its pretty expensive compared with mainland china and it sort of feels a bit shallow I guess.

Off to Australia on the 8pm plane.

A visit to the chinese hospital

Ed fell in the bushes while we were cycling yesterday. I only realised this when we were all having dinner last night at Drifters back in Yangshuo. He had a swollen finger with some sort of nasty spine stuck inside and he couldn't get it out.. so we left the Danish girls at dinner and headed over to a pharmacy to find something to give to him and then we were told to go to the hospital instead. I think Ed must have been shitting himself, I mean its only a spine but the finger looked infected and you don't really want to have any problem like that in the middle of rural china and have to chop it off because its gone nasty.

So we went up to the hospital to see a doctor who could get the spine out of his finger I was the interpreter as I was the only one who could speak chinese. Once we got to A&E at the hospital we got taken to a place with a sign saying "Handle the room" (I think this means the patient Handling Room) and he had a mini-operation with a sterile sringe and tweezers to get the spine out. The doctor wanted to put him on a drip with antibiotics and give him an injection but we managed to get away with just a course of oral antibiotics and a visit the next day to see how things were going.

Its now the next day and the finger's looking a bit better, not quite so swolen, the doctor just said to keep taking the antibiotics two more days and have a shot for tetanus but Ed's already been vaccinated so didn't need to have an injection afterall. I'm heading off back to Hong Kong tonight and I think he'll be staying a few more days with the Danish girls looking after him to see how the infection pans out.

Cycling along the paddy fields

Morning on Saturday and I'm meeting up with Edward, this Irish dude who's come overland across Siberia and been riding the grasslands in Mongolia who I met the night before having dinner at Drifters in XiJie and we stayed up until 2am drinking beer and swapping stories abou life. So Ed and I go off to have some chinese breakfast: doujiang & youtiao (Hot soy milk with fried pastry and sugar) at one of the small stalls that line up the main street of Yangshuo. We then set off with two montain bikes from the hostel where I'm staying to go and see Moonhill Mountain, which is kind of like one of the many jagged peaks that line the landscape around this town but this one has a hole like a doughnut in the middle of it. Here is a photo of me cycling though the country on the right.


Anyway so we meet these two Danish girls Ira and Anya at the top of the mountain taking photos of the scenery and then we all set off to find an alternative pathway back to Yangshuo but going via the villages and paddy fields as opposed to using the main road. Up on the left is me taking a photo of Anya, Edward and Ira getting lost on the way (as you do).. And if you are wondering why the girls are both wearing crowns of flowers - its quite a normal thing to be backpacking and meet smiling girls wearing flowers on their heads. Its all just part of the adventure.

Here is a photo of us once we eventually found our way across the paddy fields and managed to make it back to the main road.

Yangshuo (China)

Helloo!!! Just arrived in Yangshuo... my god what a mission to get here.. its 8 am and freezing (0 degrees).. if I'd known I would have stayed nice and warm in hong kong and stuck to shopping instead of coming over to this place. Have to say the landscape is pretty staggering though, just what I remember.

Hong Kong to Yangshuo

I didn't get to stop in Hong Kong, pretty much went straight from the airport to Hung Hom train station and then up to the border crossing at Luo Wu on the KCR. Its a pity because the weather is so nice, Hong Kong in winter is just the perfect temperature (15-20 degrees) and I sort of regretted not staying, but I figured if I was going to spend a day or two in Hong Kong it made more sense to do it AFTER going to into mainland china so that I don't have to rush my way back in to catch a plane and miss it because of something silly like roadworks in China or a train being suspended on the way back.. which I could see happening fairly easily.

My first impression of PRC after 4 years since I last came here was being buffeted by THE SMELL emmanating from the river at the Luo Wu crossing. Welcome to China. :)

Shen Zhen was just the same, chaotic and smelly and people are rude, not very genuine and its full of cheap and nasty things. And this is the city with the best standard of living in all of China apparently.. I went to the Bus station and booked a sleeper ticket for the 12 hour journey to Yangshuo (Y220 which is about 18 pounds). Only to realise that it was 10 am and the next bus wasn't leaving til 8pm. So I had a whole day to do nothing in Shenzhen. Before a grueling 12 hours stuck in a bus on the way up to the middle of nowhere... greaat.... remind me again... why do I do this?

36 Hours

Wow... I'm off in just one and a half days... its 2 am and I'm trying to sort out my backpack see if there is anything I need that I forgot to put in there..

Basically its a pretty small bag. Single small backpack, fits as hand-luggage so I don't have to risk some airline losing it. I'm trying to keep it below 10kg, as I'm going to have to lug it all the way round the world. The heaviest items are my 2 guides, I'm taking Lonely Planet for China and (budget) Australia and NZ. I'll get the South America guide at some bookshop in Sydney just before I go, there is not much point carrying it around for the next month as I'm not going to use it. Other than that its just 1 raincoat, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts, some t-shirts, bathers, toiletry, underwear and a camera and mobile phone, oh and a sleeping bag. Then the essentials: Passport, Money & Tickets (PMT - the list you never forget). I'm taking a maestro and visa card for money. A printed round-the world ticket and my spanish passport with its Chinese visa stamped in it. Don't really need much more than that - Australia only needs an electronic visa application (Done) and I don't need visas for South America or New Zealand travelling on a European passport.

Scratching with Tapiador and Karim

Saturday night Tapi, his girlfriend Chis and I met up with Tapi's friend Karim that he met in Belgium. Went off to his place in Fulham where we had some yummy Osso Bucco for dinner followed by a scratching session using Karim's Decks mixing some of Tapi's music, and then some drum n' bass and hip hop. Here's a photo of Tapi on the left scratching away happily then Karim's checking out some stuff on his laptop as well.

After scratching we headed up to a Chelsea bar and another one in Clapham for a couple drinks and then ended up at my place til 4.30 am listening to music and copying Karim some mp3s of funky chinese rap I had lying about (MC HotDogg - Ha Gou Bang) so he could mix it in with his drum n' bass.

DJ Tapi @ Kings Lynn

On Friday there was me and my spanish friends Concha and Jose (Tapi) from EGB (junior school) plus his girlfriend Chris who were all staying at my place, heading out on a rental car on the way up north to Kings Lynn to hear Tapi play at a drum and bass gig there. After almost smashing the car to bits on the south circular trying to get out of london on a busy friday night.. and then travelling out to the arse end of nowhere we finally got to this guys place and had a cup of tea with some fig rolls before going off again to hear Tapi mix some of his vinyl at this party with a wicked MC (and I didn't like MCs much but now after hearing this one sing I'm starting to believe that maybe they have a place in the world afterall - drum bass and breaks gigs.. cant have an MC at a trance rave it just doesnt go).. Here are some pics of the party.

Researching my Travels

Tuesday night I went off to Borders bookshop in Oxford Street for a bit of research.. The have a whole floor area with 3 sections dedicated to Travel and its full of lonely planet and other guides, plus there is a cafe in the store as well, so its perfect place to do a bit of reading before heading off...

I was trying to find out answers to the following two questions:

1) What do I do for a whole week in China?... I really want to go to Yangshuo again but will I have time to visit my friend Steve in Shanghai? Is it possible to do all that AND be back in HK to catch my flight on the 19th? Hm.... Looking at bus/train routes and timetables... Looks like I might have to choose one or the other, crap.. Oh well Yangshuo is too good to miss out on, and I need to get away from big cities I think. I'll have to visit Steve some other time it seems.. Damn.

2) Uruguay is between Argentina and Brazil and I'm flying into one and out of the other: Is it worth visiting the place? Is it a nice country? Do I need a visa? Is there anything interesting to see? Basically Uruguay is one of those countries that its almost impossible to get any travel information on. The guide for it was out of print in 2002 and there is none left.. I could find a chapter on the South America budget book for LP and it basically says: Yes - its worth it. "the switzerland of South America" apparently (does that mean its a little boring maybe?).. So its got all the nice bits of Argentina but its more chilled.. good Horse-riding, plus there is a bit of a Ibiza-like night spot in Punta del Este I might want to go and visit. Seems like I might be crossing Uruguay on my way to Brazil..

Team Lunch

Here are some pics of the guys from work, we are having lunch at Zizzis in the wharf. Really nice place to go for hearty italian food.. they make some yummy pizzas and calzones in there..

Here are Kirsty and Dave...

This is one of Laurie looking at his coffee and thinking about how much meat there was in that pizza he's just eaten...








And here is one of me and Shilpesh... Hellooo!