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Uruguay

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Passport Stamp Collecting (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay)

Our time in Mendoza, the first stop in Argentina, was very sleepy. We headed there on a tip about a horse riding and wine tasting tour which we did on our second day. Unexpectedly we had the lovely tour guide to ourselves, first taking horses up into the hills overlooking the town and surrounding vineyards, and then onto the factory where we were shown how the wine is made, and taste tested a couple of them. Afterwards we took the horses back and had a glorious BBQ with wine.

After 3 sleepy poolside days and a heartbreaking goodbye to Mara and Paul, I headed solo for a night bus onto Cordoba. Arriving pretty early in the morning, I walked round the city for an hour or so before heading to my hostel which while being pretty far out from the city centre was my main reason for stopping in the city. It did not disappoint, looking like a fancy hotel (by my standards at least) and having a big pool. I ended to having a room to myself for the night and the pool to myself the next day. In the evening I headed back into the city for a night bus to Buenos Aires.

On arrival I quickly learned Buenos Aires is a pretty massive city, with what I'd predicted to be a short walk to my hostel taking hours. Over my couple of days in the city I walked round a lot, exploring the different districts and parks, figuring out the metro and meeting up with my pal Alex who I met in Slovenia last year.

The next stop was Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, an hour's ferry ride away. I arrived as the sun set and ended up spending the evening drinking wine, chatting to people in the hostel and accidentally getting into an argument about Donald Trump. Classic. The next day was spent walking around the quaint and beautiful town, watching a glorious sunset and then jumping on the 3 hour bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

2 days in Montevideo were pretty quiet, with it not at all feeling like a capital city at all, especially as everything was shut all weekend. At the end of the second day I met up with Leo (who I met in Colonia) and together with John, an Irish guy he had met, we bussed up to Punta del Diablo; a beach town pretty close to the Brazilian boarder.

We really loved the town, with its white sandy beaches and (finally) warm sea. We had an expensive but delicious fish lunch on our first day and spent the rest of the time trying to eat as cheaply as possible to compensate. We spent a ridiculous amount of time on beaches or in the sea, slowly building up what miraculously resembles a tan (mostly due to the merging of freckles).

On our third morning Leo and I headed for the bus to a beach down the coast but were picked up on the way by some friends we'd met the night before. They drove us to Cabo Polonio, a reserve with sea lions and an adorable little shack-like town where we spent the day lying on the beach. That evening they dropped us in Valizas where we (shockingly) spent the next day napping and lying on the beach. Ideal times.

The following day we headed to the tiny bus terminal to move on to La Paloma. Realising that it was approaching the weekend and my forward plans had been booked up, we ended up spending a couple of days here, being about as active as we'd been in the rest of Uruguay. On my final day in Uruguay we bussed to Montevideo where we met up with Elaine, who I met in La Serena. I said my goodbyes to both of them and spent the night back in Colonia del Sacramento for a morning ferry back to Buenos Aires.

Arriving around midday I headed straight to meet Kayla, who I met in Australia a couple of years ago. We spent the afternoon doing a walking tour (where I briefly bumped back into Stuart from Cabo Polonio) and tracking down a bar. Poor planning and distraction from a lovely catch up left me sprinting down the street attempting to hail taxis that managed to get me to my night bus to Posadas about 30 seconds before it left. Nothing changes.

I arrived in the border city around midday, opting to walk through the city to my hostel to see the sights. The 2 hour walk in 30°+ heat wiped me out and I spent most of the day lazing, other than when having a walk around at sunset beside the river overlooking Paraguay. The next morning I walked along the river to the bridge crossing with Paraguay and after a fair bit of confusion, boarded a train for about £1.30 that would take me across.

The wealth disparity between Argentina and Paraguay was obvious as soon as I entered the country. Posadas' clean streets, abundance of cars and gated houses had been replaced by Encarnacion's street sellers, motorbikes and a colourful mess of incomplete buildings. I had the same feeling as I'd had in Bolivia, feeling like I was somewhere entirely different, rather than a slightly altered version of Spain. Again opting to walk to my hostel I made my way through the maze of markets and to the river now overlooking Argentina. I explored the town in the afternoon and watched sunset over the small manmade beach. In the morning a jumped on a local bus to the nearby Misiones ruins, the remains of a small town complete with houses, a school, churches, an orchard and a graveyard. The ruins were beautiful and I had the site pretty much entirely to myself. After heading back to Encarnacion I got a bus back over the boarder (a far more painful crossing, taking 3 hours rather than the train's half hour). I then caught a bus up to San Ignacio.

The town of San Ignacio was tiny and extremely charming. While their Misiones ruins were more touristy than Paraguay's version they were still pretty quiet and this time gave me more context about the history of the civilisation that has built these towns. After exploring the ruins I visited an entirely deserted beach overlooking Paraguay, which unexpectedly was one of my favourite places of the trip so far. One night there and I was headed up to my final stop in Argentina, Puerto Iguazu.

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Not chilly Chile

After an initial struggle finding a hostel Mara, Paul and I ended up in a nice place near the centre of town. San Pedro is tiny and very expensive compared to Bolivia, made up pretty much entirely of restaurants, hostels, shops or tour agencies, but it's somehow still got a lot of charm. It became very quickly apparent we were in a desert with intense heat in the middle of the day (although it did rain while we were there, something that usually only happens every 12 years or so - classic) but the heat was well compensated with juice and ice-cream. While there we did a tour to 'moon valley', named as NASA have tested some of their robots there before taking them to the moon due to similar terrain which was pretty cool. After a few days our bank balances were hurting and we were getting a little tired of recognising everyone we passed so Mara and Paul headed south to La Serena where I'd meet them later and I headed north in an attempt to meet another friend.

I arrived in Iquique in the early hours of the morning and as soon as it was light I practically sprinted to the beach. A month inland was far too long. Despite never seeing my pal, I had a really great time there. I got horrendously sunburnt walking along the beach (seriously, horrendously), got extremely confused trying to order food in Spanish, spent too much money on jewelry and replacement clothes (I'm losing and destroying them at a concerning pace currently) and generally felt pretty at ease in the place.

2 very chilled days later another night bus took me down to La Serena where a lovely hostel filled with really lovely people was waiting. After exploring the town on the first day we headed to a nightclub on the beach filled with drunk locals. The second day we ate a tonne of sushi and then headed to what turned out to be a very local festival (it felt like we were crashing a birthday party) with live music and great pizza (a very rare find in south America).

Mara, Paul and I then headed down south on another night bus to Valparaiso, a city known for its street art. It did not disappoint, with incredible graffiti covering practically every inch of wall and door in most areas. We were again in a lovely hostel and with some friends we made there we headed to a nearby beach on the second day for an attempt at swimming in the freezing sea. By the forth day I'd managed to convince Paul and Mara they'd seen enough of the city and we planned to go to Pucon, a town with a hostel I'd been recommended back in Peru (Chili Kiwi). A lack of planning meant we had to spend a night in Santiago waiting for a cheap night bus, but a nice hostel with free welcome drinks made this a welcome stopover. A walk around the city the next day was enough to see that despite it being nice, it was just a city that could really have been anywhere in the world and no further time was really needed there.

Unfortunately our bad planning meant Chili Kiwi was full so we ended up in a hostel that despite having a good atmosphere was pretty lacking in cleanliness and facilities, with 2 bathrooms for 50 odd guests. Within a few minutes at the hostel we booked our 3rd night to be at Chili Kiwi. After catching up on some sleep we headed out to explore the town. Pucon is very touristy, feeling like a European ski village with wooden adventure shops, agencies and restaurants filling the streets, overlooked by mountains and a beautiful snow topped volcano but it's got a really lovely feel to it. The next day we were joined by a girl we met in the hostel and together the 4 of us hired some bikes and embarked on a pretty tough but scenic cycle to some beautiful waterfalls. We were disappointed we couldn't swim in them and didn't have time to get to a beach we'd planned to but it was still a good if exhausting day. The next morning we headed pretty much immediately to Chili Kiwi, which we instantly fell in love with. I signed up straight away to do a 'hydrospeed' trip which was basically white water rafting with an abundance of white water and a severe lack of a raft, instead replaced with a boogie board type thing. It was super fun. In the evening we watched the sun set over the lake and volcano. On our final day we hired kayaks with a guy we met in the hostel and kayaked along a peninsula lined with luxury apartments with their private beaches - however in Chile the first few feet of the beach are public land so we were able to lie on the beaches and jump off surrounding rocks for a few hours. After kayaking we got I think the best burger I've ever had and headed for the bus. I will definitely go back to Pucon one day.

Our final day in Chile (Valentine's Day) was chaotic. Arriving around 6am after a sleepless 10 hour journey, we assumed any bus heading to Argentina from the city would head through nearby Mendoza so there would be plenty of choices. We were wrong. With only night buses available we eventually decided to pay a day fee at the hostel we stayed at last time to get access to showers and a sofa to catch up on some sleep on. While trying to sort an Uber to get us there (something that took far longer than it should have) we had something we later guessed was mustard thrown at us in an attempted scam where a local distracts you by offering to clean you while others take your bags. Luckily wed heard of the scam so nothing was taken from us but we were left thoroughly pissed off and smelly. Eventually we got to the hostel, showered, slept and got some shopping done. We ended the day sprinting from our taxi into the bus station, arriving with 2 minutes to spare from our 14 hour layover. Pretty impressive really.

I've really loved Chile. It's expensive and massive and I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on buses (50+ hours in 2½ weeks) but I've met some wonderful people and seen some really beautiful places. I can't wait to come back and explore the south in the future.

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Bolivia; the cheap and wonderful

I arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia, completely wrecked from a sleepless 8 hour night bus and unnecessarily long boarder crossing. After a few hours of recovering a girl in my room invited me on a quest for food and together we explored the adorable town and ate dinner overlooking Lake Titicaca. I got up early the next morning for a boat tour of Isla del Sol and Isla del Luna. I was super lucky with the weather as rainy season's torrential downpour ended as we got to the islands and I was able to wander round them exploring the Incan ruins and traditional houses in the sunshine. That evening I caught the bus to La Paz, with an 'interesting' detour in which we had to get off the bus as it was loaded onto an extremely precarious looking raft and we separately boated across a massive river, in the middle of a thunder storm. It was an experience.

I arrived in La Paz to find Lexi, the girl I'd met in Copacabana, drinking in the hostel bar. The following couple of days we spent exploring the city, shopping in the witches market (named because they sell ingredients used for witchcraft, including dried baby llamas. Grim), exploring the streets and parks around the city and watching the new Jumanji film at the cinema in Spanish, despite neither of us really speaking the language. I spent a day feeling sorry for myself when she left, with the altitude really taking its toll on me. Not wanting to waste my time, the next day I did a 'Death Road' biking tour, named from its insanely high mortality rates when the road was regularly used by 2 way traffic. Luckily, a new safer road has now been built, but it was scary to imagine how it could have ever been used as a highway as we cycled past huge drops and through waterfalls in some of the most stunning mountain scenery I'd seen. On my final day in La Paz I did a city walking tour, sampling the greatest avocado sandwich I've ever had while learning about the huge market culture of the city. After the tour a few of us tracked down the cable cars in the city and, after a minor blip in which we were all incapable of noticing the difference between red and orange, we caught the line up to El Alto. El Alto stands at 4095m, offering great views of the city below it and some lovely local markets. I got back to the hostel and played cards and watched a film with some Aussie girls I'd met the day before and headed to bed.

My £4 bus to Cochabamba was 8 hours of winding through stunning mountain scenery sat next to one of the chattiest Bolivians I've ever met, who was not at all put off by how little I understood. She spent the journey excitedly pointing out scenery, showing me photos of her family and she bought me an ice-cream for no apparent reason. She was great. A walk past some of the tastiest looking street food I've ever seen got me to my hostel, the first I'd stayed at that seemed pretty much entirely Spanish speaking. The next day I explored the city, mainly headed for the Christ statue that measures in at 44cm higher than Rio's. After getting rained on there I spent most of the day chilling at the hostel hoping for a good night's sleep before a long bus the next day. It turned out that long bus in fact only existed as a night bus so, having already seen most of the city, I wandered through one of the biggest markets I've ever been in and curled up in the station.

The night bus, despite the many horror stories I'd heard, turned out to be pretty painless and I found myself arriving in Sucre, Bolivia's capital, entirely disorientated but intact at 5 the following morning. Once it was light I headed to the hostel where I was blissfully checked in early. I intended to stay in Sucre for one day but a combination of glorious people, beautiful architecture and cheap markets somehow kept me there for 5. I explored church rooftops, watched the sun set over mountains, danced with locals, attempted to learn salsa, ate a lot of cheap as food (including 25p tapas), saw some dinosaur tracks and drank a concerning amount of fresh fruit juice, all with the greatest people. When it finally came to the point that I'd spent far too long in the city, a friend and I headed for the night bus to Uyuni. When we got to the station however, it turned out that despite the tonne of bus companies, only 1 seat remained so we said our farewells and with a lot of trauma and assistance from an absolute hero of an Argentinian guy who translated a complete mess of directions I set off for Potosi.

Managing to find a hostel for a few hours sleep, I was up at 7 to track down the mine tour company my parents used a couple of years ago. The tour was 5 hours long, including a claustrophobic and boiling hot 2 hours in a fully active mine. I was completely exhausted after, coughing from dust and aching from crouching - it's impossible to imagine actually working with heavy tools and rock all day every day. After the tour I headed straight for a reattempt at the bus to Uyuni, arriving several hours later to torrential rain and thunder in a spectacularly bleak town. After a quick catch up with the friend I'd left in Sucre I headed to bed to be up early to book a tour.

After a few failed attempts at booking with tour companies that didn't seem entirely Spanish or Korean speaking, I ended up following a street vender to book the tour through him. After talking to the other people in my group at end of the tour it turned out I actually ended up paying the cheapest price for a highly recommended company. Happy lucky days. My group was a German couple (Mara and Paul), a Brazilian guy and a Swiss German couple and their 3, turning 4, year old daughter. Everyone was wonderful, including our driver Mike who spoke pretty good English considering we hadn't paid out an extra £100 for an English guide.

On the first day we drove to a train graveyard and then on to the famous salt flats, which had been flooded by recent rain making for incredible reflected views. We drove a fair few hours in gorgeous ever changing scenery to end up in a basic hostel for the night. The next day we drove past llama filled mountainside, flamingo filled lakes, chinchilla-like animal filled canyons, weirdly shaped rock formations and geysers. Our hostel for the night was next to some hot springs where we relaxed while watching the stars. Our final day we passed several lakes reflecting the mountains and volcano that formed the Chiliean boarder before heading across the boarder and down into San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

I'm going to miss the prices, the people and the landscapes of Bolivia an awful lot but I'm so excited to get back to sea level and the coast.

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Southern Peru (2 weeks and 60+ hours of buses)

My glorious pal Matt arrived in Lima to a slightly manic day of last minute trip bookings, city and extremely ancient ruin exploring and sunburn. The day ended with us eating dinner in an old train carriage in Barranco, things were off to a good start.

The next morning we were finally leaving Lima, with our (thankfully painless) 4 hour bus to Ica to stay in 'Banana's Adventure', a hostel we'd been recommended. It did not disappoint, with an amazing sandboarding tour included, a hostel pool and some really great food. The following day we headed to Paracas for a tour of the Ballestas Islands where we saw a dolphin, sea lions, starfish and a whole load of birds, including penguins and pelicans. We then headed back to Ica for our long night bus to Cusco.

18 hours of sitting next to some awful smelling toilets while hurtling round corners when we already felt ill was not fun but the scenery when the sun rose in the morning was incredible. The bus wove right through the Andean mountains, with every turn (and there were a lot of them) giving way to more breathtaking views.

We finally arrived in Cusco on New Years Eve and after a minor mishap with our accommodation (we'd booked for January instead of December) we headed to bed to catch up on as much sleep as possible. In the evening we met some Danish friends from Lima who taught us a weird drinking game and then headed on to the main square to witness the most chaotic fireworks display I have ever seen. Large and small fireworks were let off by the crowd all around us, which once you were over your terror, had the most incredible atmosphere. After an obligatory walk around the square in our yellow underwear (it's meant to give you good luck) we headed to bed.

The next morning we headed to our Air BnB and met some American friends from Lima for some exploring. After a short walk up hill (an absolute marathon at altitude) we decided to do a horse ride round some of the main attractions. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into this ride we were caught in one of the most torrential downpours I have ever witnessed, which pretty much instantly left us completely soaked and freezing. We bailed on the tour, heading home for showers and then meeting back up for pizza. Later we headed round the shops and ended up stumbling on another entirely chaotic fireworks display in the middle of a market, with explosions barely above our heads and sparks landing perilously close to some very flamable looking stalls. It's a miracle to me that Cusco is still standing.

Our Rainbow Mountain hike had a 3am pick up the next morning. A mediocre breakfast was improved by a beautiful 4 hour drive through the countryside, despite several very close calls as our bus hurtled round cliff faces with huge sheer drops beside. We'd been warned a lot about altitude and proper hiking equipment, but after the days before rain we were left to hike at 4900m in trainers. The climb was really tough, especially on the tight time limit we were given but well worth it. Lunch was a far better buffet of traditional food and by the time we got home around 8pm we were very ready for bed.

We were up at 3 again the next day, this time for our day trip to Machu Picchu. We were picked up for a 2 hour drive to a 2 hour train ride which got us to Aguas Calliante in time for a wander round before catching the bus to meet our guide at Machu Picchu for 10am. We were super lucky with the weather all day, with the clouds having already cleared by the time we arrived and barely any rain until we hiked up to the 'Sun Gate' late in the day. We headed back to Aguas for dinner in the evening and finally got home around 1am.

Seemingly enjoying not sleeping we were up at 6am for a 6 hour bus to Puno, a town next to Lake Titicaca. On arrival we wandered around the friendly feeling town and booked a lake tour for the next morning. We had an amazing 3 course dinner for about £3.50 and drank some fancy alcohol in a mixology bar. The Lake tour took us out to the Uros Reed Islands to learn about how the islands were made and the lives of the hundreds or so families who still live there. We then did a beautiful 2 hour kayak trip before heading up to a local house overlooking the lake for a delicious homemade lunch. We pretty much crashed out all evening in preparation for our final bus together.

At 7am we headed for the 6 hour bus to Arequipa, booked a Colca Canyon tour through our hostel and headed off to find dinner, stumbling across a Christmas parade in the main square. The Cola tour took us through more gorgeous mountain scenery and beautiful small towns. After checking in to our hostel at the edge of the canyon, Matt and I and 2 American girls we'd made friends with headed to the nearby natural hot springs. In the morning we headed further into the canyon to look for Colca Condors, which despite the season we were lucky enough to see a few of, even if from a distance.

Back in Arequipa we lost a day to feeling grim and eating rubbish food to try and comfort us. On Matts final day we met up with the American friends from Lima and Cusco and wandered round the city before stumbling upon a climbing center where we spent the afternoon.

As Matt left for the airport, I headed for a bus back to Puno and on to Copacabana in Bolivia.

I apologise for the very list like form of this post but it's hard to fit in just how much we did in the 2 weeks we had together. Travelling with Matt was an absolute dream and I'm going to miss him and Peru a whole lot.

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The Brief Chronicles of Lima

My 2 weeks in the Peruvian capital of Lima passed by in a blur. Despite working at a hostel for the second week and spending and an ungodly amount of time napping and lying in hammocks, I fit a fair bit in.

Most of my time was spent exploring the clifftops and parks filled with cats and dancing locals of Miraflores, the architecture and shops (and chocolate museum) around the main square, the beaches, statues and city views from Chorrillos and the graffiti, sunsets and markets of Barranco. I just about figured out local buses; cheap but chaotic, with conductors beckoning you onto still moving vehicles, indicating by sticking arms out of windows and stopping mid traffic. I attempted (and failed miserably) to surf a few times and ate some incredible local food (beef heart unexpectedly included). I tried acro yoga, learnt how to make pisco sours and swam in the rather chilly Pacific ocean, all while maintaining an impressive sunburnt maroon colour.

Lima is huge. You can walk for hours without getting bored, with constantly changing surroundings as levels of poverty and building standards change around you. Despite each street having a unique feel, the never ending chaos of car horns and alarms, the terrifying arrangement of overhead cables, the constant calls of persistent taxi drivers, the often smothering heat and the friendliness of locals really bring the city together. I love Lima, and I will definitely try to be back soon.

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Poor Planning and Peru

Well well well, another several blogless months have passed us by and back here we find ourselves. Me; on a plane, you; wondering why you're reading this blog. It's been a rollercoaster.

My poorly planned European trip (as mentioned in my previous post) somehow turned from a short holiday seeing friends, to visiting 35 cities in 21 countries over 6 months, fuelled almost entirely by the inspirational stories of other travellers and copious amounts of cheap alcohol. The people and the places were incredible, I'll maybe post some of the many stories of near disaster and chaos here later.

Arriving back in April, unemployed and homeless, I was lucky enough to get a job for the YHA in a hostel in Hartington in the English Peak District for 6 months, working with some of the loveliest and funniest people I've ever met. As my contract end approached the familiar itchy feet feeling returned to me and I somehow found myself booking a flight with very little research. A month bothering friends in the UK, a few days in Jersey and 5 days in Spain with my parents and brother later here I am, on that flight from Madrid to Peru.

With my rough route plan and my 53% fluency in Spanish according to Duolingo (I've got 'una cerveza por favor' down at least) I think I'm finally ready for 3 months in South America. There should at least be some good stories from this mess.

Adiós xoxo

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The Intermission

This post begins with a classic "Golly, it's been a while hasn't it?" It (hopefully) won't surprise you to learn that I've actually been up to quite a lot since my last post, it having been over a year and all. My month in England was spent bothering some of my favourite humans in London, Loughborough, Wolverhampton, Bath, Hythe and Canterbury. After that it was home, for what turned into the most fantastically manic summer I've ever spent in Jersey. It took about a week to find a job, starting off 7 months of working any and every job I could get my hands on, seeing friends, spending every free minute on the beach, preparing to move out of my childhood home, getting drunk, sleeping under the stars and having a generally wonderful time. I squeezed in a glorious couple of days in Guernsey too. The summer flew by and before I knew it I was facing a winter in Jersey without my home, my family (who were headed off on their own adventures around Asia and South America) and most friends as they headed back to university. Panic kicked in and I decided the only solution was a month travelling the UK, a month in Europe and then to try my luck on a move to London. Anyone who knows me knows that planning isn't exactly my strongest suit. Thanks to my friend Vanna being an absolute champion by planning for us to see the Lumineers live in Amsterdam at the beginning of November, I stuck to my month in the UK, catching a ferry to Portsmouth at the end of September and moving on to Brighton, Canterbury, London, Hythe, Manchester, a few days in Dublin and a tour up round Northern Ireland with Vicky and down to Cork alone before flying on to Cardiff, back to Hythe to help (/get in the way) while Abbie's family moved to Winchester and back to London for my coach across the channel to The Netherlands. And so, with promises of being back in England for Christmas, the (mainland) European part of my trip began. But I think that's maybe best saved for another post. Thanks for tuning back in to my mess of a life. XXX

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South Korea

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Teddy Bears & Temperature Swings

South Korea was mad. Beautiful, busy and completely mad. Looking out the plane window in our shorts and tshirts it was beginning to dawn on Doug and I just what we'd let ourselves in for. Clue 1. The airport staff had absolutely no skin showing. Clue 2. There were no tourists in the airport. Seriously. None. I've never seen that before. The temperature difference we faced within less than 12 hours was about 50 degrees. Not the best idea we've ever had. We spent our days in Seoul searching for hostels (I don't think we found a single one straight away throughout the entire trip, including on return visits) and for warmth in the form of several thousand layers of clothing and an excessive number of cafe stops. We were bought drinks and taught games by a Canadian guy, (sort of) mastered navigating the subway network with its trumpet sound incoming train alerts and weirdly temperamental gates. We saw palaces, shrines and some questionable art installations around Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, passed frozen rivers, ate incredible food (highlights being a huge £3.50 dinner in Gangnam and an all you can eat meat buffet) and quite a lot of 7eleven ramen, saw statues and skyscrapers in Digital Media City, and explored the impressive yet incredibly bias War Memorial of Korea. On Jeju island we (obviously) started with the Teddy Bear Museum where we saw history recreated by teddy's and watched a musical performance by teddy Elvis Presley before heading to Ripley's Believe It Or Not for a very bizarre gathering of artifacts from all over the world and then jumped on a bus (not before getting lost again, but being saved by some very friendly Mormons) around the kind of disappointing coast line arriving at Illchabong Peak in time for sunset. The morning after greeted us with the heaviest snow we've seen in years before our flight to Busan. In Busan we got lost a whole lot, ate some kind of incredible egg roll creation, visited what is apparently the biggest department store in the world (I'm not entirely convinced) and headed up to Gamchon Culture Village with its strange little art installations, colourful buildings and a sudden abundance of Asian tourists all set a backdrop of mountains, sea and city views. It was beautiful but very cold so we spent the last few hours hiding in a cafe before catching the train to Gyeongju. The people at the first hostel we passed in Gyeongju basically adopted us, showing us a good place to eat for dinner which somehow became sitting around chatting til 1am while eating takeaway chicken. A painful early start the next day gave us time to wander round some of the tombs and traditional buildings in city before jumping back on the train to Seoul. The last 14 months of my life have been absolutely incredible. No amount of preparation could have prepared me for the sights, the people and the chaos. Despite a few shaky times I wouldn't change a thing and am so grateful to everyone who's been involved in any way. I've spent the last month being back in the UK visiting friends and being reminded just how fantastic home really is. Things are good. More adventures to come. Louise x

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1-5. Hue 6-8. Hoi An 9. Night train 10. Fairy stream in Mui Ne

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1-5. Hue 6-7. Hoi An 8. Night train 9-10. Mui Ne

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Final Stops

The overnight train dropped us in the quiet town of Hue, a welcome change after manic Hanoi. We spent a couple of days there looking around temples, palaces and burial grounds in various absolutely breathtaking settings, trying to comprehend the scale of the building projects they would have required. We were told there was a saying for one of the temples, that once you went to work there you never came back, as many workers died before its completion. It's strange having such admiration for the incredible architecture while also having complete disgust that so much time and expense went into one king's burial ground while everyone else was living in extreme poverty. Next we caught a day train through stunning coastal countryside to Hoi An, a stop that ended up being one of my highlights of the trip despite being packed with tourists. Our hotel provided bikes allowing us to both shakily navigate the completely mad market streets and explore some beautiful local areas where we greeted with continuous shouts of hello and smiles. All the streets were lined with hundreds of lanterns (to mum's continuous joy) which made exploring at night all the more lovely. We spent our final free days in Vietnam in Mui Ne, a relatively small fishing village/Russian tourist filled resort. After the culture packed schedules of Hue and Hoi An it was wonderful to have a few days chilling by the pool in the 35 degree heat, broken up with walks, cycles and exploring the 'fairy creek' with its red and white sand dunes disappointing lack of fairies. Finally we headed to the airport where Doug and I said goodbye to Mum and Dad who headed home while we spent a final 10 days in South Korea.