TravelStream™ news feed for member themurphys on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/themurphys en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:15:08 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/11/1257303390/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/11/1257303390/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/11/1257303390/tpod.html Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:15:08 -0400 Is Japan Ready for Us??

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Tokyo Prefecture, Kanto, Japan

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Kyoto, Kinki, Japan

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Takayama, Chubu, Japan

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Tokyo, Kanto, Japan

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1222339380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1222339380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1222339380/tpod.html Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:20:50 -0500 Chile Peru and Bolivia - Our 5 weeks in South America 2008

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La Paz, Bolivia

A couple of hours in a comfy bus through lovely countryside before we hit the Bolivia border crossing... no big problem apart from the fact that 2 buses arrived at once so about 100 of us needed the one guy sitting at the little card table to stamp our passports.... ho hum.. Back on to a different bus.. I guess the Peru bus wasnt allowed into Bolivia.. and it was another couple of hours until we reached the lovely lakeside town of Copacabana.  Cynthia tried to head us all to a restaurant for lunch but Rob and I wernt hungry...(probably all the junk food wed been eating for the past 2 hours!...sigh... we didnt know we were having a hours or so lunch stop!!).. so we wandered off by ourselves and found a little restaurant with a lovely sunny courtyard and sat to have a coffee... This was one of those lucky decisions as sitting at the next table were a couple (geez Ill have to go back in here and edit cos I cant bl..dy remember their names.... how rude of me!)... anyway....they must have heard our accents as they started to chat while we had our coffee and it turned out that the girl was an aussie from country NSW who'd been living in the UK and Spain for years and for the past 3 years shed joined her boyfiend and they both had been sailing the world...as a job.. theyve been everywhere!We found out a couple of days later when we met up again  -that for work  they had been sailing the world - him as the captain and she as the cook/crew.  Theyd been working  for a rich guy looking after his boat.  They would just hang around doing maintence on the boat or whatever until he gave them a call and he tell them to have the boat in Nice in France in 3 weeks time where hed fly and met them and so theyd sail it down there and then crew it for eg. his 2 week holiday.  Hed then fly back to the UK and theyd sail the boat to the next place he instructed... and hang there until they heard from him or his relatives again...they did insist that it was harder work than it sounded.heee hee. After the coffee a quick walk down to the lakeside and then it was time for back on the bus.. It took us through the hills to the ferry crossing where we all bailed out again onto a little boat while the bus was driven onto a barge for the lake crossing. We arrived into LaPaz late afternoon. Coming into the city was fascinating as it sits in a deep bowl surrounded by steep hills.. so as our bus zig zagged down the hills LaPaz sat waiting for us at the bottom... all brown in colour and once again a unique place not like wed seen before. The bus dropped us at our hotel door and we waved goodbye to Doug and...!!! whod been sitting at the back of our bus since leaving Copacabana. We checked in at the hotel and off we all went for a walk around the city... looked in at San Francisco church which is right opposite our hotel and then up to the Plaza de Armas where we came across all the riot police... Many places in Bolivia had been rioting the day before (common occurrance here and often disrupts travel). 30 people had been killed in one of the cities.  We were told that one of the unpopular politicians was coming to the Plaza for a press conference so the riot police were clearing everyone out. We all took a few quick photos... cameras often get taken from you in these cities if they see you taking photos of something they dont want you to..so a couple of quickies as we were walking away as those guns are pretty impressive. Our group all had dinner together that night and then bed for Rob and I as we were exhausted from the bus.  Next day there was a 6 hour tour to some ruins so Rob and I decided to give it a miss and just check out the city.  We wandered and at mid morning stopped at a local speciality restaurant selling Saltanas which is like a pasty thing with beans,meat and egg but mostly gravy in it.  We wanted to try it as its the standard Saturday and Sunday morning food for all Bolivians... I guess its like us having a special sunday brunch... they all love these on weekends for breakfast and so restaurants and food carts are selling them everywhere.  They were a bit disappointing but maybe it was the cook....heee. As we walked past the church in the plaza de armas and it was open for the Sunday morning service.  We walked in and around the edges as the service was being conducted and I was so glad we did... all the Bolivian woman were there in the usual gear plus bowler hats but they all had sequinned and tizzy shawls on! - all in bright pinks, blues, yellows - wonderful and so sparkly... its their "church or going out clothes!) I say glad we saw them because there was so many dolls being sold in the shops with these shawls and Id thought theyd looke stupid and Id figured theyd just used any left over material to make the dolls pretty but were not tradional (therefore stupid..he) - but here all the women were dressed in these shawls! - looked wonderful Late afternoon and back at the hotel and... our very good friends...hee..yep Im rude... anyway our mates from the day before were down in reception asking for us at the hotel... we went down and on chatting found out that.....sigh..."the guy"... rob thinks its Doug.... so that will do for now..hee... Doug speaks fluent Spanish! bonus! Years ago he'd had a spanish girlfriend for a few years...hence the spanish.....anyway.. they had come to the hotel to say they had checked out what the go was in La Paz during the day and found that the International Jazz festival was on in the city and they were going to a jazz club that night did we want to go?... .. and the next day... yep that was planned too.... did we want to join them for the day and just share the taxi price..(wed get one for the whole day as it makes it relaxing to go where we say and wait each time) -sounded great! we're in!... A fluent spanish speaking Pom and an Aussie who were both fun.. how lucky was this.   The only thing I told them that I had really wanted to do was go and have a look at the outside of San Petro Jail as I had read the great book Marching Powder - true story of a Pom and an Aussie in the Jail - and just had to see what this prison looked like! - Doug (Im sure thats not his name!...sigh) ... Doug got all excited... he said no probs wed take the taxi there first as hed already gone there that day as hed read the book too! He was rapt to go again as his girlfriend hadnt read the book like Rob so hed been high as a kite going there that day but had to enjoy it by himself as she didnt "get it" - So he said yeah yeah well go again.... anyone whos read the book would appreciate the excitement of seeing the place! ...heeSo a great day and night was had... We went to San Pedro.. it was exciting! just imagining everything from the book ... I could even see washing up on the roof that had been put out  through a skylight window to dry... would definitely be in the  5 star block!!!  - and as we walked the perimeter, the side door was open and I could see a red sign - Im sure it's the coca cola sign!- that is mentioned often in the book.  Doug and I were rapt!.. just imagining the steps and the balcony above and we decided that this side door would be where the rich ones all come and go - what a buzz!.. and the beer stalls at one end of the block - I could just imagine the prinsoners coming and going with beer runs..hee.. anyway it was so good to see the place...everyone should read this great book.... and written by an Aussie too.(and now a movie) Then taxi up to a park overlooking the city and back into the main drag where all stalls stages were set up with jazz entertainers from all around the world.  It was funny to find that the most popular and admired South American flute music muso is Japanese! - He has cult following.. and yep he was good on the flute (or whatever the wooden flute thingo is called in Bolivia).  We spent a few hours here and it was great. - bit like hanging out at the StKilda festival on a sunny Sunday..heee  Then back in the taxi to go into one of the suburbs which Doug had heard had good restaurants that were popular with the locals for family lunch get together on Sundays.  Lovely couple of hours of lunch in a truly authentic restaurant with no stress as Doug did all the ordering... hee hee Then onto Moon Valley which has amazing rock formations and only 15 minutes outside of LaPaz... very strange and beautiful. Ok were exhausted.. back to the hotel for a shower and then we met up again for dinner .. Rob and I told our group back at the hotel where we were going and they all turned up so a good night was had..... and hopefully Ill remember this great couples name and Ill add it here!!! keep posted..hahahaha.  They are planning on coming back to Australia in about a year to settle down so maybe theyll get in touch in the future (so it would be good to remember their names then...sigh)alert alert alert....I found the paper with "our friends" names and email details! (thank god - very frustrating)... Doug! (good old rob got it right) and..... Karina!!!!.. feel free to insert their names into the appropriate places when reading..heee
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1219648260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1219648260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/5/1219648260/tpod.html Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:18:24 -0500 Chile Peru and Bolivia - Our 5 weeks in South America 2008

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Valparaiso, Chile

 Following blurb Ive cut and pasted from the guide so I can remember in the future... sorry... skip over if not interested. Valparoisa is 115km  NW of Santiago and said to be Chile's most captivating. During the 19th century, Valparaíso ranked as a port town of such wealth that few others in the world could compare, but in the years following the completion of the Panama Canal, Valparaíso sunk into poverty. Today, especially on hills such as Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre, the city's rundown buildings are being rebuilt.  The historical importance of this city - a reason why UNESCO designated Valparaíso a World Heritage Site in 2002. Much like San Francisco, the city is made of a flat downtown surrounded by steep hills.  The jumble of multicolored clapboard homes and weathered Victorian mansions that cling to sheer cliffs and other unusual spaces and you could spend days exploring the maze of narrow passageways and  winding streets that snake down ravines and around hillsides.OK - .... the bus trip there was lovely with viws of pretty wineries all along the road.  I rang Alberto the hostel owner from the bus as he was picking us up at the teminal which was just as well as the city spreads over 3 steep hills with all the buildings filling the hills with no plan and often alleys and steps but no roads seperating the properties. The Alecon hostel is in a great position on the top of Cerro Alegre and 2 minutes from one of the 100plus year old funculars. - we would never have found the place ourselves.   Its a small hostel with only 4 rooms and we were the only ones staying thre.  Alberto is a spanish Valapraisian and a very ¨proud¨one... sigh... because this resulted in him sitting us down on our arrival and giving us a walking trail to follow with an explanation of every nook and cranny along the way with history and antedotes thrown in.... which was great until at last we escaped from him more than an hour in only to find it took us less than half this time to cover his route!  Its an absolutely beautiful town with all its multicoloured buildings, cobled laneways and steps going straight downwards disappearing around corners into alleys and the steps down again... and when you look up there is wonderful views over the port below. Add to this over various spots across the hills all the lovely funiculars that are all so different, big small, steep, short long, with most built in th early 1800´s  Each ride cost about 25 cents to take you up or down different parts of the hills... a really pretty and unique place. As per Alberto's instructions we ended down near the prot where where he hd recommended a supposedly great seafood restaurant. Found it and there standing outside hawking for passerbyers to enter for lunch was a fantastic looking old guy with curly black dyed hair and wearing a white suit and shoes - looking just like a gangster out of a 40's movie! hee    While we were eating the "mobster guy" came in and tuned on the kareoke machine and proceeed to sing at each table.  Of course he sang me and Rob a love song....??? and then he spoilt the moment?? by proceeding to give each table an envelope for us to place a tip in! ha We spent the afternoon taking the funiculars up and down the hills and for dinner we went to the terrace at the Brighton Hotel which is a beautiful little pink hotel that hangs off the side of a cliff. Dinner at a place like this in Australia would have cost a bomb but was peanuts here (about $20 for 2 including drinks). Next morning we woke to rain! Guess we'd be lucky again yesterday being able to wander Valparaiso in the beautiful sunshine and experience as it should be experienced.. so no big loss having a bit of rain for our second day.  We'd left our coats in Santiago as we'd brought only an overnight bag with the essentials but I wals almost happy that after 4 tips of carrying our $1 emergency "plastic bag" ponchos it had at last paid off! We caught a collective which is an unregistered taxi that works like abus. They have numbers with specific routes on their roofs and when they are filled they leave and instad of $2 for the ride its 20cents. Thanks to Alberto we knew what number collective we needed to go to Sebastiano (the biggest problem as a tourist to use collectives..we cant tell which is the "right" one)anyway... Sebastiano is the name of the Valparaiso house which also belonged to Pablo Neruda (the one we visited in Santiago was where he's lover lived and where he secretly visited) - this Valparaiso was his home where he lived but still only his 2nd home - He's main house that he loved was Isla Negra in Chile's Central zone only a few hours further down the coast from Valparaiso. Sebastiano was interesting but not amaing like the first one - but the views over the port were wonderful... He truly was an fascinating person.. yep reminder to self to buy his autobiography...We wandered downwards thru the hills knowing that all tracks/steps wil eventually hit the port at the bottom. On reaching the bottom and the main area, we asked a young girl for the collectives number to get to the central market and how much - sono probs and another 20cents well spent.We wanted to checkout the market as it was designed by Eiffel of Eifeel tower fame (didnt quite live up to that standard though....!!!). We made our way up to the first floor "food court" for lunch but realised we only had $6 in pesos on us..duh! .. so no seafood... everywhere so far in chile (except markets) takes credit card.. even for icecreams..so we'd got slack with carrying cash.. not what we expected in South America!Back to the bus stop and the trip back to Santiago and "home" to Villa Franca Hotel and dinner of course at "our" Liguria Bar. All the waiters welcomed as long lost relatives and shook Robs hand when we walked in.. let's see if they remember us in 4 weeks when we return on our home leg...haIn Chile restaurants each table has one chair with a clip to connect your handbag to due to the high theft rate, but this didnt help the poor "local as in not a dumb tourist" women who was having a party with friends only 2 feet from our table. She answered her mobile phone and when she went to replace it in her handbag..gone.. and us like her didnt even see anyone walk past her let alone steal the bag.. she was very distressed but it seems to be pretty common. Last morning in Santigo we cught the metro into Cerro Santa Lucia which is a small hill right in the heart of the city that is adorned with wonderful facades, fountains and stairways and even has a 'castle' on it. (Cerro is Spanish for Hill) It was at the foot of this hill that Pedro de Valdivia founded the city of Santiago on February 12th, 1541. The hill was terraced out years ago for a park using prison labour to make the terraces... a really beautiful spot.Then we hit the craft market directly across the road to check the prices for when we return at the end of our hols and then it's airport time and we're off to Lima - Peru!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/3/1207907220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/3/1207907220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/themurphys/3/1207907220/tpod.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:01:18 -0400 Japan - a fantastic country - Lots of photos from some of the places I visited during 9 trips over the past years.

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Tokyo, Japan

 
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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

So holiday over... just a 19 hour trip and well be back in oz... but first an "almost drama" - one that could have been the big story of the holiday.. but then again could have been nothing... luckily, we'll never know which......We arrange for a car to pick us up at the hotel for the airport run... all seemed to be ok but 25minutes into the trip and 5 minutes from the airport our driver starts muttering and playing with the gear stick and then rolls off the 4 lane well lit airport freeway onto a dark exit ramp where he rolled to a stop... not good.... especially as he didnt speak a work of english  (or us spanish.. as I dont think banos (toilet) or hola (hello) would do much for us here)  He gets on his mobile and then signals to us- ok ok 5 minutes.......... ok we say.... He gets out of the car and lifts the bonnet.. we're in a very dark spot but Im still happy.. as long as the back up car comes quick.. we'd allowed plenty of time.. But Rob was a bit edgy and said for us to get out of the car... Im still happy.. no probs...  then a van comes off the exit ramp and pulls in front of us and a guy gets out, speaks to the driver and then to us in english.. he is a stranger to the driver, just a passerbyer but is offering to take us to the airport (he had seen us next to the car).  I say yes please thinking this is good as we dont have to stress waiting for the backup car..we jump in and in minutes we are there.. the guy explains that he was on his way to the airport anyway for a hotel pickup of guests...drops us at departure - thank you and see you later..It is only then as we walk into the airport that Rob tells me that he had been really worried... and he was right to be.. ... although well never know.. but I had read of the scam in Santiago on the internet at home and forgot all about it.... There had been a very good chance that the backup car would have arrived and we would have been robbed of everything!.. common occurance and I hadnt given it a thought even though I knew of it!.. I think that is why the nice guy stopped to offer us a lift.. .as he would have seen the situation and probably decided to stop "just incase?" - that would have definitely been one holiday adventure I didnt want.And then the good news of the entry... on checkin the girl tells us that although we have very good seats near the front of the plane there are quite a lot of empty seats at the back.... would we like to sit at the back instead????  lovely girl!!  We get on and she has give us 2 seats together in the middle (4 seat wide middle).. and the row in front and behind us are empty! -Yep Robs out of his seat in a flash and has the row in front of me... - 4 seats each! - and even when I stretch out fully I cant reach the end...heaven.. and dont forget to add the 4 cushions and blankets I get all to myself for cushioning and comfort and all in the world is good...So one sleeping tablet for me... and none for Rob.. since when has he ever needed help with sleeping?..and we both stretch out across our 4 seats and snooze NINE HOURS EACH....heee heee.. can you believe that?!.9 hours!.. a perfect end to our holiday..hahahaand... Molly?.. yep she had done her second cruciate ligament and was operated on the day after we got home poor baby!  She is still currently confined to the playpen and laundry (so far a total of 12 weeks!) but is starting doggie water hydro exercise next week... that info is for anyone who cares hahaha... cos I know none of you do! ha
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Santiago, Chile

We arrived back in Santiago Friday morning.... and would fly out  midnight Sunday...so the entry title is "Santiago - and back to our Bar"...  cos that was the big plan for our last 2 nights before heading home...and we were soooooooooooooooooo looking forward to it! What better way to finish our holiday than a great bar, food, music, atmosphere and walking distance to hotel in a foreign city???Yeah right.... In the afternoon after settling in, we went for a walk around and...... everything's closed... part 2 of yesterdays Independance Day...Can you belive that!!??... sigh...and "our bar" is shut too!... very disappointing but at least we can go tomorrow - Saturday which will be nice finish for the holiday..... BUT NOOOOO....it didnt happen!!... it seems that as Independance day had fallen at the end of the week 90% of the city decided that they may as well take Saturday and Sunday as well and make it a good break  -HOW RUDE AND INCONSIDERATE!....So we spent the time visiting the places we hadnt had time to see last time, fish market (with a seafood lunch that was disgusting, mainly because we had no idea what we were ordering and it was not good!) We paid and extra $30 and got checkout extended to 6pm which was the best 30 bucks spent during the trip..hee..and.. .now its home time.....
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