TravelStream™ news feed for member liv.ltd on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/liv.ltd en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:38:34 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1191843300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1191843300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1191843300/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:38:34 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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London, United Kingdom

Tearful goodbyes and we're off on our adventure!
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London, England, United Kingdom

So this is the end....for now!  I found my family in terminal something or other trying to find their luggage and we finished where I left...in Wagamamas...well this had to end with food...it's important stuff!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219750380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219750380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219750380/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:34:43 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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New York City, New York, United States

Hooray New York....what an iconic end to my trip!  I left my luggage in left luggage at JFK and after a fortifying cookie at the airport, I hit the streets, in search of a lonely planet guide to New York....apart from it was so early that everything was shut!  Eventually I found a starbucks and sat there drinking stuff until the next door book shop opened - phew!  Now I a. had a map and b. had some ideas for things to do!  I made my way to Battery Park where I had a good look at the Statue of Liberty and shared the most disgusting pretzel ever with a sparrow!  Looking at the que to the ellis island ferry I decided I would leave that for another day and instead decided as it was such a beautiful day, I would walk along the edge river to the world financial centre and ground zero, where I had the yummiest sandwich ever (I hadn't had a real sandwhich for a while)!!  I then decided, based on my first bit of walking, that New York is a walking city and thus should be walked so I continued to walk alongside the Hudson, past the mounted unit headquarters which shared its building with the department of transport and the violation tow service, to the Lincoln centre and then Columbus and 72nd street where I met my cousin Ruth who was just about to leave NY!  Having enjoyed tea and scones, we decided we might as well share a taxi to JFK, she was leaving and I needed to collect my baggage!  All that done I made my way back to the city and the flat of the girl I would be staying with - Danny, who I had met in Buenos Aires!  It was great to see her again and I was provided with the most comfy airbed in the world and was soon catching up on some much needed sleep! The next day was dedicated to shopping......well as dedicated as I ever get to shopping!  I started off at times square, from where I went to the national photographic center.  Next stop was the rockerfeller center, went over to Barneys....which was unbelieveable....for a start it was confusing because it was incredibly posh but then people were poncing about with what vaguely passed for dogs!  I felt like I had stepped into Ugly Betty land and ran out of there pretty quick!  I took a visit to Saint Patricks Cathedral which was next door and then ambled my way down the road to central park where I ate the most enourmous salad ever sitting on the grass sourounded by high rises!!  I then went in search of Bloomingdales, stared at the expensive clothes and headed back to central park again, planning to go up to the frick gallery and then the met!  I only managed to hobble as far as the Frick however as my feet were Fricking killing me!!  The Frick gallery was absolutely insane though!  It was this guys house in which he collected European art!  I can't begin to imajine having to decide whether to put that nice Giovani piece in the dining room or perhaps some titian or maybe a bit of constable woule be better!!  That evening we went out to a nice French restaurant with some more Buenos Aires people, which was great fun! Day three and I was determined to get to the met so that was the first job on the list!  I decided to walk through central park to get there and passed someone who was begging...'Hey lady do you wanna help?''No''Oh but that did help!'Well it made me smile!  Anyway the Met was huge and I enjoyed the section on African, South American and Oceanic art aswell as the huge photography section!  I then headed back down to battery park where I took the ferry round the statue of liberty and then over to Ellis island.  Ellis Island was really fantastic, there was a really informative audio tour dad told me to take and I learnt all about what emmigrating to the US was like when the island was in use.  This all made up for the rediculous security measures that were in place before you were allowed to get on the ferry, which included airport style security checks that were more stringent then some countries have at their main airports!  And all this only to find a large unattended axe on the actuall ferry!!  That night we got chinese takeout in exciting boxes like they have on the telly!! On my final day I was on a mission for my sister!  Armed with the list I set out, as instructed, to chinatown!  The main item on my list was a Channel bag in brown!  But could I find any Channel bags at all???  No!  I decided I would try one more shop and then give up, so in I went and asked the man do you have any Channel bags, he said something to the lady who was clearly in charge who looked me up and down and said Channel bag?  I said yes.  She said I have some for $180 dollars.  I said my sister wanted to spend $40-50.  She looke me up and down and I thought that was that and was about to go when she said follow me.....Now Steph had warned me that I may have to go into a back room but when I was shown into the backroom there was nothing much in there....I was convinced I was going to be mugged and murdered on my last day of travelling, I knew it would happen at some point on my travels....but in NY...by a botoxed chinese lady with fairly extraordinary hair??  Surely mugging and murder by kilashnikov touting farmers in deepest darkest Peru would have made for a better story....and if these thing are going to happen you should at least be entitled to a good story!  Anyway the lady then continued into another back room which to my relief was full of bags and two other tourists!!  She showed me a beautiful brown Channelle bag and told me I could have it for $60!  She kept telling me it was real and I was being very uninterested and not believing her....I had no idea if this was one of the bags in the pictures steph had sent me....but I decided it was quite nice anyway and as instucted it didn't look too fake so I took it!  It was only when I got it home and was taking the newspaper out that I found the certificate of authenticification that I begun to believe that it acutally real....and probably fell off the back of a truck!After all that excitement I was quite exhausted and after a visit to the bottom of the empire state building and Leonard street (ironicly it was a one way street), I decided to go home and pack and generally chill as I had an early start in the morning! So final morning out of England....and its chucking it down...and none of the frigging yellow taxis would stop for me, so I had to get a gypsy cab, and then spent the entire trip to the airport convinced I was going to be killed again hours before my return home....I reassured myself that at least I would be dry during my murder!  Needless to say I made it to the airport and eventually made it through security....despite haivng to stand in a glass box and being tested for chemicals!  The final flight was uneventful and soon enough I was realising yet again how small england is as the little plane on my flight tracking screen got closer and closer to our island and eventually smothered it and Englands green satanic hills came into view!
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Bogota, Colombia

....which has the most appalling airport ever...there was NO food anywhere!  AND the plane was frigging horrible....worst then some busses I've been on!  The second plane left at 11.30pm then they gave us breakfast at midnight and then we went to 'sleep' and woke up after an hour at some stupid hour in New York....oh well at least I no longer had to sit next to the annoying man chewing his gum anylonger (we took an immediate dislike to each other)!!
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Lima, Peru

Back to Lima....I had no choice....luckily this time it made a better impression on me!  I stayed somewhere slightly more central this time and hit the markets for those final bits and pieces that were necessary to suvival....or something!  Still not a huge fan though and after 24 hours I was on another plane off to NYC....via bogota....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1221214920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1221214920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1221214920/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:28:08 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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Puno, Peru

So it was back to high altitude....although for me this time not with quite as catastrophic effects as the last couple of times - phew!!On our first night we managed to struggle down to the center of town....huffing and puffing and shivering all at the same time (somthing that requires a great deal of concentration i assure you!)  We passed a jolly brass band playing outside a church (part of the celebrations building up to assumption or somthing)....after a VILE meal we returned to bed and tried to stay warm...well dad claimed that he was warm but i find that very hard to believe!  Anyway we spent the next couple of days acclimatising...we visited Sillustani the site of huge burial towers of a aymara speaking tribe and Chucuito a pretty little village with a huge church and the templo de la fertilidad which contains large stone phalluses which women would sit on to become more fertile!!  And of course we made a visit to Punos cathedral...or maybe its a church and the 'beautifully curated' Museo Carlos Dreyer.After all this acclimitising we decided something more adventurous, so Dad and I booked us all on a two day tour to the islands on lake Titicaca.....So all packed up (the rents even managed to fit their stuff in one small bag) we were collected in a minibus and transported to the 'port' where we successfully located our boat and were given the obligatory panpipe recital by random peruvian.  We then chugged off to los islas flotantes, literally floating islands constructed of reeds....makes walking a very strange sensation indeed, hoping that your foot will stop sinking before it hits water!  After an explanation of how the islands are made, a guided tour of peoples houses (?? I think most of them actually live in puno now!) and of course the purveying of many priceless goods (mostly made of reeds...all made on the island - yeah right!)...anyway, after all that, we got on a reed boat and our hosts sung us a farewell song in every language present in the tour group!  We then made our way across to a second island....presumably to buy more priceless artefacts....strangly reminiscent of what we had seen on the previous island...intresting!  Anyway all this reeding business had to stop at somepoint (much to the relief of dads walet) and we were ordered back onto the 'speed' boat for a long ride to Amantani where we would be staying the night!Once we had arrived on the island we were allocated a family to stay with and walked to their humble abode....which actually turned out to be quite luxurious compared to what I was expecting - there were proper beds and everything!!  We were fed lunch which was quinoa soup followed by rice with vegetables and the squeekiest cheese in the world!!  We were then given some time to rest before hiking our way to the football stadium...which in true south american style was the most solid looking construction on the entire island!  From there we continued UP to the highest hill on the Amantani, on which is situated a temple which one must walk round 3 times in a clockwise direction, whilst continuould wishing the same thing!  Wishing complete we then washed the sun set, and descended the hill as the most enourmous moon rose over the snow topped Bolivian mountains in the distance.  After supper, our family dressed up in traditional dress and took us to the hall where a party was being held....we laughed at each other in our traditional jeans and skirt combo and joined in some enerjetic traditional dancing which basically involved holding hands and running around manicly...sometimes round a fire!  Finally all the hosts did some rather extraordinary performances and we headed home for some well earned rest.  The last thing I heard through the paper thin walls (apart from dads snoring) was my mother on her return from the outside squat toilet 'well darling, if you are going to the toilet now, all I can say is good luck'!! The next morning we breakfasted early - ONE pancake...how anyone it meant to start the day on that I am yet to find out - and headed back to the 'harbour' where we got back on the boat and headed for Tacquille!   Here we started with an epic walk which started with a sharp incline and then continued to amble up relentlessly until a small town...which I think was the main one where we stopped for a talk about the island and learnt all about the mens hats and womens skirts!  Most memorable of all were the hats that signify a mans marital status, a certain pattern of stripes signifies the wearer is single, another and he is married.  This led me to thinking that a similar idea could be adopted in the UK but we could go a step further.....We could have patterns for single, married, gay, GSOH, likes long walks and reading by the fire etc!After the talk we didn't have to walk much futher before we reached our lunch stop where we at the most delicious fresh trout - straight from the lake yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!  We then took a lot of steps down to the shore and boarded our boat that took us all the way back to Puno again, from where we checked into a different hotel and collapsed in a crumpled heap!!  Not for long though as we planned to meet up with some people from our tour group for pizza!  After 2 hours of waiting our drinks arrived it was quite some time later that any food appeared and when it did I found a nail in my pizza!  It all quite hysterical, especially when, as usual, the simplist meal ordered - omlette - arrived ½ an hour after everyone elses food!! Our last few days in Puno were spent chilling out!  We visited the Yavari a ship built in Enland and hauled over the andes by donkeys, admired some ducks and shopped and subsequently dropped in some markets!   We left Puno by train and wound our way through stunning scenery and dusty towns and villages.  We were served delicious food by rediculously flamboyent waiters and learnt how to make the famous but disgusting drink pisco sour!  We finally arrived in Cusco in the dark......
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219317660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219317660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219317660/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:25:15 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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Puerto Maldonado, Peru

Finally heat!!  We flew over the jungle to the tiny airport at puerto malderno where we were transferred to the river Madre de Dios, which we were then motored down to our eco hotel in the Jungle (which is in the amazon basin).  Our first day - after lunch of course we had our orientation walk with our guide Percy and the other family we would be in a group with.  We were then given time to settle into our very smart...although open - even the showers had windows - jungle huts.  That evening we went on a night river safari to spot the enourmous Kamens (crocodile things), one of which charged at our boat....I don't think he was enjoying having a large flashlight shone in his eyes!! The next day we were up at sparrows fart to do a tree top walk - mum slept out of this one!  We took a boat downstream and then walked to the base of a wooden tower which we ascended to the start of a series of wobbly walkways up in the cannopy.  Sadly we didn't manage to spot much wildlife other than some rather large ants and the odd termite nest!  In the afternoon we took a trip out to lake Sandoval, this involved a boat ride down river and then a long walk to the shore of the lake, which was made all the easier when we spotted a group up howler monkeys up in the trees!  Once we had reached the edge of the lake we got in a boat and Percey rowed us out into it.  It was an oxbow lake and absolutely beautiful, we saw some more monkeys, lots of different birds...including, rather dissapointingly, a pidgeon and some bats!  We watched the sunset go down behind the trees and then saw the pirranas come out to play, the good advice to keep your hands inside the boat was not questioned!  By the time we had got back to dry land it was dark and armed with a wind up torch we stumbled our way back to the boat and home to our huts, looking forward to dinner! On our final day we took a day trip, a walk through the jungle where we saw such oddities as a walking palm, which grew its roots outwards in a certain direction to enable the tree to literally walk towards light!  We then met a small boat which took us back down the river via the odd fishing (where we effectively fed fish, one lady caught a pirranah) and swimming spot.  We then made it back to our original spot where we ate a delicious ant infested picnic before walking all the way home again....how exhausting!! The next day we were off and so were the parents....seperated again!  The airplane landed in Cusco at which point the parentals got off and I stayed on....destination Lima!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219231020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219231020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1219231020/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:19:52 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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Cusco, Peru

We were taken to the most rediculously posh hotel (I wasn't even allowed to open my own door) which was in an old monastry and still had the very elaborate chapel with enourmous paintings in it!  We went out for supper and then headed for bed in preparation for our early start the next morning to Puerto Malderno.....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1207695900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1207695900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1207695900/tpod.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:38:13 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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Christchurch, New Zealand

The flight into Christchurch over the south island was spectuacular, as we crossed the snow topped mountains however i was allready starting to get goosebumps, five minutes off the aeroplane and i was on a mission to find a fleece.....New Zealand is COLD!We were staying in a lovely hostel with an owner who couldn't do more to help you if he tried and comfy beds with huge duvets phew!!  This was all rather welcome after the DISGUSTING hostel we stayed in in Sydney!  We liked New Zealand (NZ) allready!!  Having found a fleece and shoes without large holes in we were all set for exploration and pounded the streets of Christchurch visiting the cathedral and generally having a good nosy round!  The following day we took a trip out to the french settlement Akaroa, a beautiful little town on a peninsula formed by volcanic erruptions and guess what??... it REALLY does look like Scotland!!  We went for a bracing walk, had lunch by the waters edge and visited the museum which as it was proudly displayed was the best $3 we had spent in nz so far - in fact for us it was the best $2.50 (we've decided to be students where ever possible)!!  On our last day we decided to take advantage of the free bikes at the hostel and cycle to the antarctic center...we soon worked out why you normally pay to hire bikes....Kathryns breaks were fairly ineffective and I had one very low gear so i could only go at a certain speed before the peddles started going faster than my legs and my seat was too low, yet i could hardly reach the handle bars...i'm still crippled from the expereince!!  None the less the Antarctic center was amusing, we experienced a minus 16 wind chill (outside didn't feel so cold after that), saw some blue eyed penguins and fossils of leaves from the antarctic - no it wasn't allways covered in snow and ice!!  Our ride back took us through the beautiful botanic gardens and we managed to arrive back in one piece despite my chain falling off twice in the last 5 minutes of cycling!!  Even better we stopped walking like cow boys after only a couple of days...maybe we'll stick to walking!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1199515140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1199515140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/liv.ltd/rtw/1199515140/tpod.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:24:18 -0400 Liv and Kathryns magical round the world adventure, in which we will most likely get lost and definatly have an awesome time!!

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Bangkok, Thailand

Having finaly drifted off to sleep on our rather luxourious coach to Bankok we were rudely awakened by the bus lights been turned on and the odd confused mumer of we've arrived!!  We stumbled out of the coach to find that we had been depositied on some random Bankok curbside at 04.00 - 3 hours early (I think watching the Bourne Ultimatum on the way there must have gone to the drivers head)!!  We managed to work out that we were not all that far from civilisation (just the other side of the road infact) and staggered around with the company of drunken westeners, looking for a place to stay....by 5.00 we had decided that perhaps it was a little too early to be checking into rooms that people hadn't checked out of yet so we collapsed in a guest house restaurant and had breckfast (number one - hobbits have the right idea)!!  Eventually - once the sun had risen, cock crowed, normal people rolled out of bed etc. we managed to get a room on the 6th floor (nearly killed us) of a guest house overlooking a watt - view almost worth the knee joints/legs we will now have to replace!!Our first day was a marathon of sightseeing (we don't hang about) we walked down to the grand palace only to find we wern't allowed in because the Kings sister had recently died and was lying in state there.  Whilst we were umming and arring what to do next a man came up to us and reccomended a route arround the city he loved then he hailed a tuktuk told him we were paying 10 baht each (20p).  Being deeply suspicious we were just wating for the point at which we were going to be beaten, kidnapped, murdered and mugged....as it turned out we did exactly what was ment to happen!  We say the standing Buddha and Wat Indraviharn, the TAT office (the Thais are very proud of TAT - we wern't so enthusiastic), the Golden mount (again bad for the legs) and Wat Phra'Khaow.  We were then depostited back where we started (not in a brothel) and we payed 10 baht each (we actually we paid more than that because we were so schoked we were still alive)!!  We then toddled off to see Watt Po which contained the biggest buddah ever - 46m long!!  Exhausted we returned to our guest house and watched movies before collapsing ready for day 2!!Which was spent doing the most convollutedly amusing route to a market I have ever managed to think up!  First a boat down the river, then the sky train and a walk bought us to chatuchak market - huge, seriously huge (Steph would be over whelmed kind of huge) there are 15 000 shops/stalls.....including ones selling food - thank Buddah!!  Lukily Kathryn managed to disswade me from buying a puppy to take round the world with us and we escaped relatively unscathed!!  Then it was time for the convoluted route back to the hostel in preparation for our final day!Which we went to the CINEMA and TESCOs (run away - its taking over the world)!!  So not the most Thai day ever but it was seriously exciting to be sitting in obscene comfort (yes the seats reclined) watching a lega film in English!!  There was a nervous moment at the beggining when all the addverts were in Thai and we realised we didn't check the film was in English but too our relief after the National Anthem, for which you must stand and on NO account laugh, it all went English - phew!!  We even returned in time to catch our bus to Samui - we were on fire that day!!
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