TravelStream™ news feed for member elliotandcarla on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/elliotandcarla en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:37:02 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1194898620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1194898620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1194898620/tpod.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:37:02 -0500 Our travels around the world.

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Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

Travel to the Amazon region of Bolivia isn't a straight forward exercise. With one local dangerous/uncomfortable 20hr bus ride or flying on a 15 seater propeller plane that is totally dependent of weather conditions (especially if the grass runway in Rurrenbaque is wet!) We opted for the plane option. Now, I'm not a good flyer at the best of times but O my god that flight is terrifying! Take off consisted of swerving left & right as it carried down the runway and the turbulence was enough to make your hair fall out, thank god it only lasted 45 mins. Once we arrived the sun was shining and the birds were singing. Rurrenbaque is a lovely sleepy little town surrounded by towering cliffs and thick Jungle with exotic plants and flowers. We soon found a lovely guest house called Hostel Oriental that had clean and comfortable rooms and had a lovely court yard with hammocks. We soon settled in and ventured into town to see what was on offer. We spent a couple of days chilling in the heat before booking ourselves on a Pampas (low lands) tour which boasts many animals of which you see Monkeys, Alligators & Crocks, Snakes, Dolphins, and Piranhas. The four of us set off on the 3 day tour where we spent the first day traveling up river in a boat to get to our camp site which on arrival was overrun with a group of about 30 loud and obnoxious Israeli kids with 0% manners , no surprise there. As it turned out they left the following day. The boat journey was hot and long and on spotting some Dolphins our guide Yazmanny suggested we get in the water for swim with them. Now I'm glad this activity took place on the first day as had I known what lurked beneath the surface there is no way in hell I would ever get in that river! As it turned out we all survived and had cooled off. In the evening after dark we went back out in the boat with torches to look for Alligators. Their eyes shine like cats eyes when you shine light on them and we even saw a massive shooting star (I wished for beer and cash) Day two it rained like buggery so we spent the morning doing native arts & crafts! Carla & I made some cool necklaces from crocodile teeth and Anaconda bones. After lunch the rain had eased up a little so we got back in the boat and went fishing for Piranhas. We all caught a good few + I seemed to be the master at catching sticks as I caught nothing else for the first hour. That night we had the last laugh by frying those little bastards and having them for dinner. Day three the weather was beautiful again so we Carla, Trish and I minus Tash who wasn't feeling too good went off to look for snakes. We were taken to a huge and I mean huge pampas/swamp field about 2 hours up stream. With our wellies on we entered the swamp which ranged anywhere between ½ meter and 1 meter high in stagnant water and 1½ meter high pampas grass. Walking in these conditions was by no means easy and after finding out that our snake spotting destination was at least a good two hour walk away Carla said NO!!!! and returned to the boat. It was really tough walking through all that crap but after about an hour we spotted our first snake a 2 meter Anaconda Cobra, unlike the Anaconda their venomous/deadly. You got to love these cow boy tour companies, had we been bitten there was no anti venom and we were miles away from anywhere. When we got to the area where the Anacondas were likely to be found we split up to look for them. After about 20 mins I spotted another big Cobra after nearly treading on it! And not long after that our guide found an Anaconda. We we're really lucky as many people hike through that muck for hours without seeing anything. After that we started the long journey back to Rurrenbaque, smelling awful and in good need of a shower and a night out where we discovered a new shot that consisted of 2 shots of Tequila in a large shot glass, on top of that a good 10mm of Tabasco and topped off with a double sambuca on fire! Stomach reflux in a glass!! Time for a few days in the hammocks before we decided to do another tour. By this stage we had also ran out of cash as there is no ATM in Rurrenbaque and the only way to get money was by getting a cash advance from the local bank at a hefty fee. It was difficult to decided what tour operator to go with as there are so many in Rurrenbaque. After much debating we opted to go with an operator called Indigena Tours for a 3 day jungle tour on the proviso that we could would head deep into the jungle and make a camp using indigenous techniques. Carla and Tash were enjoying the Hammocks too much and didn't fancy getting their hands dirty so decided to stay behind so just Tash and I went. The Tour turned out to be nothing like the one we paid for. We arrived at camp on the first day and got taken out on a 4 hour trek trough the jungle which was quite cool but our guide was crap and didn't speak a word or explain any of the toxic plants and insects which he was suppose to do. The next day a new group arrived and we were taken out on the same walk again. We were a bit annoyed after that and asked the guide when we would be going out into the jungle to make camp to which he replied that it wasn't possible as he was the only guide and another group were arriving the next day and we would have to go with them on the same trek we had just done twice. This wasn't on so we cut our losses and Tash and I decided to head back after two days. When we got back we went straight into the Indigena tour office a bit peeved but kept our cool and explained that what happened wasn't on and that they shouldn't make promises they can't keep. We reasonable people and said that what happened has happened and could we have our money back for the 3rd day we didn't do to which they said no. As soon as they have your cash they couldn't care less. But to be honest if book with a bunch of chancers what do you expect. A couple of those Tequila/Tabasco/Sambuca shots and all was forgotten. The sun was shining and life was good, worse things happen at sea. We had another couple of days chilling then it was time to fly back to La Paz on that scary plane.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209278760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209278760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209278760/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:59:45 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Koh phangan, Thailand

We arrived back at Koh Phangan at about 6.30am and headed back to High Life Bungalows, where we spent the next few days chilling out and getting back into our routine of noodle soup lunches, frisbee in the afternoons and lazy evenings. But this time the weather wasn't so good. It rained a couple of days and when it wasn't raining it was very sticky and hot. We met a lovely couple Tarn and Alex from New Zealand and spent a few days drinking happy hour Changs at a restaurant Absolute Island (only 40 baht a large Chang!) before they headed off to Koh Tao. Tarn is a mountain guide and they both do 30 to 60 day tours climbing mountains in Nepal. Elliot wanted to sign up there and then, but I wasn't so sure I was ready to climb 5 mountains in a month!As the weather was a bit changeable we decided to see if we could swop resorts to something a bit nicer, with aircon etc. We wandered down the beach and checked out a new resort at the end called Bay View. It always looked a bit too big and flash, but when we had a look around, it's actually very nice. Everything is new and the rooms were lovely, especially compared to what we were used to. They were also doing offers as it was low season and they were still doing some building work at the back of the site. So we ended up in a lovely room with aircon, hot water, tv, fridge and balcony with great views for only 900 baht. We thought as it was our last 3 weeks, we deserved an upgrade and as at peak times the rooms would go for 2000 baht a night, so we checked in straight away. And this is where we are now. Our friend Eamonn (another Bariloche friend) is arriving tomorrow to help us celebrate our last 2 weeks of travelling before we fly to Dubai on 22nd May. More Thailand stories to follow.Some of them I'm sure will involve a crazy Russian opera singer we've met called Vladimir. He often thinks his name is Shiva, hasn't been to sleep for about a week and can be found wandering the beach in a tiny sarong singing away.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209105600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209105600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209105600/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:44:39 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

After a very cold night bus we arrived in Kuala Lumpur at around 6am. We headed towards Chinatown where we had a reservation at a hotel (Hotel China Town Inn) and luckily they let us check in straight away. So we went straight back to sleep until 10am! Then it was time for a bit of an explore. We headed towards Times Square Mall and ended up spending most of the day there at the cinema, bowling or looking round the shops. That evening we looked around Chinatown and headed to Little India for a curry, which was actually pretty rubbish (although the dosa was amazing). We had booked ourselves on the night train to Haat Yai, which we had never done before, but it was a good journey. We had second class sleeper bunks which were really comfortable and immigration was easy. So we found ourselves again in Haat Yai and had to decide how to get to Surrathani for the night boat back to Koh Phangan. We decided to get another train which I thought would take 3 ½ hours but it turned out I had read the timetable wrong and it was actually 5 ½ hours! They also only had 3rd class seats available, but we decided to go for it anyway. The train was due to leave at 2.15pm and get in at 7.45pm, plenty of time to make the 11pm ferry. But the train was late and kept getting later. It was quite hard to work out where we were as the English timetable doesn't show all the stops and we were 2 of only 10 foreigners on the train. But the Thai locals where lovely and were very taken by our mini monopoly set (thanks Jake & Kerri) and Elliot let a boy borrow our ipod for a couple of hours and he loved it. Eventually we pulled into Surrathani at 10.15pm, just a bit later than planned and as it's 14km to the ferry, we jumped in a taxi, who kindly floored it to ensure that we arrived at the ferry with 15minutes to spare. Just enough time to get a few provisions and crash out on the mattresses whilst the ferry made its way to Koh Phangan.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1207722780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1207722780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1207722780/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:34:56 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Penang, Malaysia

After another ferry journey we arrived at Penang. We were only staying one night and we knew exactly what we wanted from our stay here. Curry and cinema. So we watched a couple of movies and then hit Little India. We stayed the night at a guesthouse called Hutton Lodge, which was a lovely place to stay, really cheap and clean, although the walls were very thin. The next day we got up, went to Little India again for lunch and then headed to get the night bus east.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970380/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:33:24 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

We were heading to Kota Bharu to meet our friend Kelly. We first met Kelly in Bariloche, Argentina (there seems to be a recurring theme of meeting up with people we first met in Argentina, which just shows what a good time we had and how many great people we met). He's from Alaska and was in Kuala Lumpur on a training course and had arranged to fly to Kota Bharu and meet us, before we all headed to the Perhentian Islands together. The bus journey was a royal pain in the arse. The 'luxury' 27 seater bus we were promised turned out to be a normal 50ish seater one that was packed full. The excuse was that the nice bus had broken down, I but we think they just overbooked and had to use a bigger bus. Then Kelly rang to say that he had missed his flight so would have to meet us at the islands a day later. This wasn't looking like the best of starts. But it actually ended all ok. We got talking to a Malaysian couple from Penang who were also heading to the Perhentians for the first time and instead of going to Kota Bharu (which is 2 hours and another bus from where we now needed to be, seeing as we weren't meeting Kelly anymore), we got a lift in their taxi straight to the ferry place and were on the first ferry at 7am, heading to Perhentian Kecil, the smaller of the 2 islands. So with the bus journey firmly in the past, we arrived at Long Beach at 7.30am. I looked after the bags whilst Elliot went in search of a place to stay. This is a great tactic as there is nothing worse than lugging your bags up and down the beach being told that places are full. Twenty minutes later Elliot was back and had got us the last hut in a cute new resort just back from the beach. We checked in, had a doze and then explored the beach. Long Beach is the biggest beach on the island and you can get to a beach on the other side, Coral Bay by taking a 10 walk through the centre of the island, watching out for monitor lizards and spiders on the way. It chucked it down with rain for about 30 minutes that first day (I've included a photo so you can see it's not all sunshine on our travels) but that was pretty much it for rain for our whole stay. We wandered through to Coral Bay, which is a bit smaller and checked out the accommodation there. We found a lovely resort called Senja Bay, which was doing great deals on their rooms (40rm for hot water and fan - which was the price we were paying for our cold water shared bathroom) so we arranged to move in the next day. Once we had moved over to Coral Bay, we hardly ever left that side of the island; it was so lovely and peaceful ad had great sunsets. We signed up for a snorkelling trip with a local guy called Mat and it was so good, we ended up going again. He works out of a shop in the middle of Coral Bay, if anyone is reading this and heading that way then I can't recommend his trip enough. Anyway, Mat took us out along with about 8 others on his boat and the first stop was Shark Point, which certainly lived up to its name. We saw at least 5 black tip reef sharks, some of which came really close and swum around quite happily. There was also a big hump head parrot fish that was following me at one point, which freaked me out at first as they look like they have massive buck teeth and that was all I could see went I turned around! After half an hour with the sharks we headed off to the next place, fish garden. There were quite a few fish here, including loads of sergeant majors and they all came running (or should that be swimming) when Mat started throwing crackers in the water. Next stop was turtle watching, which involves sailing the boat slowly around until we spotted 2 turtles and then we all piled in the water. The turtles are great, just swimming around and not really paying us that much attention. Then finally it was time for lunch at the fisherman's village, where Mat lives. It's not really authentic local food as they offer burgers and lots of western food as well, but we had the same as Mat, a chilli chicken dish and it was really good. Next stop was the lighthouse, which has great coral, but the visibility wasn't very good and I got stung on the leg by a jellyfish. Not the best stop on the tour for me. Next and last stop was romantic beach, which is just a gentle snorkel near the beach where there are loads of clown fish. We finally got home after nearly 7 hours out at sea, tired but happy at seeing all the fish and coral and with two new friends Grace and Adrian, who we hung out with quite a bit for the rest of our stay.Kelly was finally arriving the next day, so we had an early night and kept an eye out for all the ferries arriving that morning. It was great to meet up with him again and after he dropped off his bags, we all went for a beer. This was a bit of a treat as the beers here are 9 or 10 ringitts (compared to 2.5 in Langkawi!) but we were celebrating. That evening we introduced Kelly to the fish barbeques that each restaurant on the beach does every night. It's all pretty simple, you choose your fish (or lobster or prawns), your sauce and then it comes piled with rice, jacket potato, coleslaw, fruit and banana cake. So much food it comes on 2 plates and you always seem to end up with coleslaw on your cake! The next day we went back on the snorkelling trip with Kelly, Grace and Adrian and to make this a bit different Mat took us looking for hump head parrotfish. And we found a school of over 30 of them ranging in size from 30 centimetres to over a metre in length. They weren't scared of us at all and we could dive down and swim alongside them. The next day the five of us went diving to a place called T3, a series of underwater rocks and caves. It was a great site and we saw massive puffer fish, triggers, nudibranches and some beautiful coral. All too soon it was time for Kelly to head back, so we said our goodbyes with plans to make it to Alaska at some point. Grace and Adrian left the same day too so we decided to head off the Kuala Lumpur the following day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209970020/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:27:08 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Langkawi, Malaysia

We caught the afternoon ferry over to Langkawi which took around 2 1/2 hours. It was a bit of a rust bucket but got us there just as sun was setting which was nice as we came into port. We sailed through (no pun intended!) customs and were soon procuring the services of a taxi with who we had to barter with as he was trying to charge 3 times the quoted price. It was quite a long drive to our guest house Zackry's which was located in the Tenggau area and after much driving around we finally managed to find the place. After checking in and a quick orientation of the premises Carla and I seemed suitably impressed. The rooms were basic and the common areas inviting and friendly plus beer was only 2.5 ringgits. This place was nothing short of a bargain in comparison to its hotel complex neighbours. We had a quick beer and headed to the Indian restaurant next door where we had a really good curry of Tandori crab and Rogan Josh washed down with a cold Carlsberg, so far so good! The next day we went for an explore and walk into town for a little look around. Langkawi is nice enough but nothing to special it's full of big hotels many tacky, the beaches are average and the water is quite dirty although some of the scenery is quite nice. I suppose what draws a lot of people here are the duty free kick backs; I know that's why we're here and if we are to last a month of limited alcohol at extortionate prices then we were going to have to stock up. We took it pretty easy for a couple of days as Langkawi was only every intended as a stopover apart from the last night where we went to a few bars with a couple from Stoke and got very drunk although not as drunk as them! Before we knew it, it was time to board another ferry to Penang (the home of little India!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209969660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209969660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1209969660/tpod.html Wed, 07 May 2008 02:25:10 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Ko Li Pe, Thailand

We could only stay in Thailand for 30 days at a time, so we decided to head down to Ko Li Pe, which is an island off the south west coast of Thailand, for a few days before getting a ferry over the border to Langkawi in Malaysia, to spent a month going round Malaysia, as we didn't get to see much of it last time. We left Koh Phanang on the night boat, which was very comfortable and arrived in Suratthani at around 6am. After hanging around until about 8.30am we left on a mini bus to Haat Yai, which took about 5 hours. Haat Yai, is a bit of a stop off town for people going to and coming from Malaysia. We decided to stay the night to break up the journey to Ko Li Pe and had a wander around town, checking out the malls and catching up on emails. We met a guy in our hostel, Chris and went for a few drinks with him and had some food in Chinatown before calling it a night. We were up to get the minibus at 8.30am which took 2 hours to the port to catch the ferry to Ko Li Pe. After an hour on the ferry, we reached Ko Li Pe and it looked lovely. Beautiful clear blue waters and no cars on the tiny island. We got talking to a German girl, Pia and the 3 of us went looking for somewhere to stay. We spent the first 2 nights in the Andaman Resort, which was ok, in a rundown shack kind of way, but after that we moved to Pooh's Resort which was much nicer with solid walls and an outside bathroom. The next few days were spent lazing around and snorkelling. We were going to go on a day trip but we found a tiny tiny island 10 minutes swim from the shore that was surrounded by amazing coral and great fish. We saw dozens of clownfish, triggers, puffer fish and Elliot even saw a shark. After 5 days of lazing around it was time to head to Malaysia.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1205132940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1205132940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1205132940/tpod.html Mon, 05 May 2008 02:38:26 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Bangkok, Thailand

So after a relatively short journey we arrived in Bangkok. We spent one night there, checking out the shops and getting a couple of massages in, before heading down on the night bus and ferry to Koh Phanang, our favourite place in Thailand. We went back to High Life resort and got the best fan hut there, with amazing views and settled in for a good 3 weeks of relaxing. We got a great routine going which can easy be copied as all you need is a motorbike and cool box. We would start off the morning with yoghurts for breakfast from the cool box before lazing around in the hammocks or going for a snorkel. Then at lunch we would hop on the bike and go into Thongsala the 'town' where we would have the best lunch in the whole of South East Asia; a Number 4 noodle soup. It's just a stand in the market, (the sign is all in Thai, the only thing we can read is the number 4, hence the name) but the soups are delicious. As we went every day, we started getting bigger portions and lots of extras (more wontons and strange new veg). They also had the cutest puppy on the island. We would then go back via the 7-11 and pick up more ice, beers and yoghurt and the afternoon was then spent lazing around on the beach or in the pool. Then it was time for beers at sunset (from the cool box of course) and dinner, either at Tantawan (an great place that does the best Thai and Western food) or back into town, to go to the stand next to the noodle place for a spicy curry. Now I have to admit that that wasn't the most interesting of our blog entries, but that really was all we did (apart from a quick full moon party night out and night in Koh Tao) and it was great. Relaxing and cheap, which is what we need when we are coming to the last few months of our travels.We also met some really lovely people - Rachel & Sandra, Kerri & Jake and Alexa, Claire and Lydia.It was the last five that we went with to the full moon party, which was actually lots of fun. Kerri and Jake were staying in the same bungalows as us so we all got a taxi round to meet the girls, who were staying in Haad Rin. After a couple of whisky buckets and a quick glow in the dark make up session (!!!), we were ready to hit the party. It was, as always packed and we passed the time drinking, watching the fire juggling, drinking and finally introduced everyone to Chicken Corner, home of great chicken burgers. At 4am the four of us headed home, leaving the girls to continue the party. They didn't have much choice really as a massive sound system was right near their bungalow and it was still going at 7am. The next morning we woke up feeling not too bad, probably thanks to all the Thai redbull that was still coursing round our system.
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Hong Kong, China

So after an awful flight that involved far too many screaming babies, we arrived in Hong Kong. We were last here in December 2006 when we had only been travelling for a month and it was great to be back to catch up with our friends Ezza and Susan. We made our way to their place and had a shower and nap so we would be ready for a Friday night out. When they had finished work we all headed out for a few drinks and then dinner in an area called Rat Alley. It's a place packed full of restaurants that serve great curry and Chinese food. We were still a bit jet lagged so didn't have a big night out. On Saturday Susan had to work in the day, so Elliot, Ezza and I went up to the peak to check out the views of Hong Kong. We went there before, but the weather was much nicer this time and we got much better pictures. Then we headed back for a barbeque at their flat.On Sunday we headed out on the ferry to a manmade beach and had lunch, followed by a bottle of wine on the beach. Spurs were playing that night so Elliot and Ezza were very happy watching Spurs wallop West Ham 4-1. The next morning it was time to leave, so we said our goodbyes to Ezza, Susan, Christopher and Apricot (their two dogs) and headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1204531560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1204531560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elliotandcarla/round_the_world/1204531560/tpod.html Mon, 05 May 2008 02:28:46 -0400 Our travels around the world.

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Lake Tahoe, California, United States

We got up relatively early; packed all the gear we needed for the slopes and hit the high way. It was a really cool journey up to Tahoe which is about a four hour drive. It took us slightly longer as we stopped off in the famous university town of Berkeley which was quite cool. We stopped there for lunch and had a little look around. The place was rammed with loads of students and hippy's especially the Harry Krishna kind banging on their bongos and jingling their bells, singing really inspiring stuff like "Harry, Harry....Harry, Harry Krishna"."You really touched me brother, where do I sign!" After taking in all the wacky sights of Berkeley we got back in the car and continued north to Tahoe. The scenery on the drive up there was spectacular especially as we got closer to the mountains, driving through forests with great red wood trees and sweeping views. What we didn't realise as Josh pointed out was that all this area was once Gold rush country which was pretty cool. We arrived just before dark and drove around sounding out potential places to stay. There were some great looking cabins that had hot tubs but we where only there for the night so a B&B was fine. We found a reasonable little place, nothing fancy but more than adequate. We dumped our stuff off and headed straight out to the Casino's which Tahoe has plenty, not on the same scale as Vegas but a similar set up in side plus you still get free drink whilst you gamble. Carla and I hit the Roulette table which we had started to grow rather fond of after Vegas whilst Josh hit the black Jack tables. After a few hours gambling we were getting hungry and our pockets were felling surprisingly lighter. On the way in to Tahoe I spotted a curry house so we thought we would give it a whirl. Feeling full, we called it a night as we wanted to have a full days skiing the following day. Next morning Josh and I loaded up the car and left Carla tucked up in bed as Carla doesn't do skiing! (refer to the Bariloche entry **)It was a crisp beautiful morning as we drove passed the giant lake; we stopped briefly to take some photos and take it all in. The lake with its mountainous back drop was truly breathtaking. We arrived at the slopes in good time had a coffee fix then kitted up ready for the slopes. It was a week day so the slopes we're relatively quiet, which was great as we some runs totally to ourselves. The runs were great, really well groomed and maintained, I was really starting to rate Tahoe. After a couple of hours I was starting to really enjoy myself, I hadn't fallen once and was keeping up with Josh who is a wicked border. On the way up to one run I was asked if I could take a little girl up on a lift whilst her brother went up with their instructor. On the way up we got chatting and she asked me if I knew the queen which made me laugh, "Of course" I replied "we often go paint balling on the weekends!" In the afternoon Josh and I hit the board park where I landed my first jumps, spectacular fun. At one stage I had to stop myself saying "awesome", being in the U.S was starting to rub off on me. It was definitely my best days skiing yet and left me craving more but like all good things they need them to come to an end. We were packed up and on the road by 4pm driving through the beautiful tree lined roads on the way back to San Francisco. We made good time and were back just after dark and in time to hit a night out on the town. We hooked up with everybody in the basement bar at Josh's friend's house for a few shots after which we headed out to a popular bar in town. The place was so packed you could hardly move, probably due to the fact they were selling Corona for dollar a bottle. After the bar we all went back to Josh's friends and finished the night off with a few games of beer pong. The game consists of two teams either end of a table tennis table with a triangle of beer cups position just in front of each team. The cups are then each filled with around 1/3 of a pint of beer and a solitary cup filed with water is kept to rinse the ping pong ball. The object of the game is to get your ball in to the opposition's cup and eliminate all their cups. If your shot is on target your opponent has to drink the contents of the cup and then remove it from the triangle. There are a few other rules but I won't bore you with them as I'm sure you get the jist. The following day was unfortunately our last and was spent looking round the shops before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Hong Kong.
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