Bahamas Part 2: Harbour Island & Nassau

Our cottage's living area

On another small plane we flew off to Eleuthera with amazing views of the various crystal clear ocean depths below. We dumped the small islander into the runway, jumped in a road taxi and 5 minutes later took a water taxi to Harbour Island. Richard and his daughter Sam Malcolm picked us (and our 6 or 7 bags) up off the island's main dock in one golf cart which made for a very crowded 5 minute ride to our cottage. 

Flanders Cottage. Sunset

They dropped us off at our 'Flanders' residence and gave us an hour to realise how ridiculously spoilt we were, before taking us on a golf cart driven tour of the small island. Its a very cool little island. The west side is the protected harbour side which hosts several docks and the main town shops and bars as well as 1st class sunsets. The east side is a long stretch of beach (3 miles) called Pink Sands beach, which would challenge any in the world for beauty and swimming conditions. There are also a couple resorts as well as amazing homes lining the dunes. Most of our days consisted of a sleep in, breakfast and then a good couple of hours on this wonderful beach. We visited the larger neighbouring island of Eleuthera a couple times which included a visit to Preachers Cave, Rock Sound, glass window, Tippy's (a great ocean decked cafe), an inland ocean hole/underground cave (pretty much looks like a dam but connects underground to the ocean), and Twin Brothers restaurant for daiquiri's and conch fritters. Speaking of Conch, we spent 2 days on the boat with Sam, checking out small nearby islands for coral, glass and shell treasures and also some conching! The second day we stepped up our efforts by towing yours truly behind the boat with a ski rope and diving goggles. Just before I returned to the boat for a rest the big shell caught my eye and I had officially caught a conch. To explain for those playing at home a conch is like a massive sea snail which lives in some of the most beautiful shells the ocean offers. They can be quite large and are a large part of the staple Bahamian diet. They eat these alien looking creatures in many different ways: sliced up straight out of the shell with lime; mixed up and fried into fritters; deep fry them as cracked conch; or fried with coconut; made into a salad or burger - and we tried them almost every way. Delicious. So I was proud to be back on the boat with my very own. Later we spotted what looked like a whopping conch! We then managed to lose it numerous times but visited the area again just before heading home. We spotted the large pink shaped and Rhi was down to her bathers and in the water faster than you can say "its quite shallow". She returned to the surface with a massive conch. Sam's uncle got the slugs out of the shells for us so we are now carrying (until we can mail home) 2 beautiful conch shells for the pool room. We also took a day trip with Sam to Spanish Wells (an island close by full of wealthy albino fisherman) and Russell Island.

James also visited us on harbour Island for a day and showed us around the impressive Pink Sands resort that used to be owned by the Malcolm's. We also watched a bit of Sunday night playoffs in the NFL. James gave me my first lesson in the rules and I backed the underdog, (and now follow) the New York Giants. Sam was an amazing tour guide during our stay on the island and we miss her as much as we miss Briland. She toured us (in Jeep, golf cart and boat) through the island highlights such as Ramora Bay for their famous frozen Goombay Smash cocktails (fruit, smashed ice, rum), the Shack where she works for cheeky conch fritters and the odd night club for great Bahamian tunes and drinks.

Sam, Rhi and I exploring Eleuthera. Near glass window bridge.

We are also extremely grateful for Sam's parents Richard and Lemmie's hospitality and enjoyed going out to their favourite restaurant on the beach (Acquapazza), having us up to their wonderful home for dinner on several occasions, picking and dropping us off at the dock and most of all letting us stay in one of their beautiful island style cottages. We lived in serious comfort and were able to really relax from travelling and just holiday. The batteries were charged and unfortunately it was time to farewell harbour island… for now.

Sunset off the cottage veranda

The three hour ferry took us back to the capital Nassau and we enjoyed dinner with some of Sam's relo's and her boyfriend. Nassau certainly doesn't have the magic of the islands but it does have Atlantis! James hooked us up with a couple tickets and we spent a day at the amazing hotel/waterpark/casino/world. We tried out every waterside and visited all the awesome aquariums full of sharks, jellyfish, seahorses, manta rays, dolphins and the like. We finished our Bahamian visit with dinner down at the well known fish fry with James and his two kids Claire and Andrew. The day after we thanked James for an amazing month in a place that we will never forget and are bound to visit again.

Back to real travel we flew…

Had to grab the Canon at 3am to get this shot out the dunny window. Moonset.

All pics up on flickr - MAH

The Worlds Greatest Shave - Please Donate

http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/markhambley 

Rhi and I are planning our trip and it turns out that we will be somewhere in Southern Italy between march 15-17th. Somewhere during this 72 hours we will have to find a barber to shave my skull down to a number 2 and blow the caterpillar off my upper lip.

This is all for a great cause. The war on cancer!! A war we humans are getting flogged in!! Please follow the following link below and donate and/or leave me a message somewhere along the lines of "im sure your scalp will still be sexy and symmetrical even after years of AFL footy considering you are an average outside player at best".
Thanks guys - really appreciate it.
Love MAH

http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/markhambley 

Bahamas Part 1: Abaco and New Years in Hopetown

Rhi and I had a long day of travel ahead of us. Starting with an early flight out of NYC to Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas. Our stay was as long as our wait in the immigration line (accompanied by a local band playing island tunes in one corner of the terminal) as we made our 5 minute taxi ride around to the executive side of the airport and boarded a 8 seater plane to Abaco. It was a very smooth flight over the famous Atlantis hotel as we headed out to our 2nd Island in as many hours. Within minutes of landing after a couple photos with Rhi's first ever small aircraft we were whisked away by James Malcolm (5th Cousin as we have now worked out) along with his kids Andrew and Claire who were on the plane with us. James visited Perth and my relatives decades ago. He has always wanted to see one of us Aussies return the favour by visiting him in the Bahamas. I remember getting a Bahamian surfboard keyring when I was little that was either from James or his dad Richard and thought to myself that I will visit the Bahamas one day. Well here we were in the thick of it! James took us to 'the lodge'. I would rather live here than Julia Gillard's Sydney equivalent. Over the road from one of the best swimming beaches I have ever seen (having said that all the swimming beaches we have seen in the Bahamas are up there with the best, something about the colour that makes them so unique).
After settling into the 2 storey, 6 bedroom (by settling in I mean taking photos of the beach from the balcony, you can see them on my flickr site) we were taken a 30min drive away to a place called Pete's Pub. A very cool sand bottom outdoor pub that serves the fresh catches of the day. The snapper I had was some of the best fish I've ever had. Rhi and I later returned to Pete's for lunch.
The following day we went on a 4wd adventure out to a local lighthouse that not even James had visited. A very cool place considering you can climb up the inside of the old English lighthouse (still scattered with original cupboards and equipment) which is now automated hence its lack of population.

Abacoian English, now automated lighthouse

The views from the top were very cool stretching out over the Bahamian sea's. We spent a couple days chillin on the beach and then slept in for a New Years eve prep.
We drove into Abaco's main town, Marsh Harbour and caught the 15min ferry to Hopetown which is described as the Hollywood of the Bahamas. We cruised around the island on a golfcart, beer in hand before having a six course meal at the Hopetown lodge. We headed back down to Firefly (Hopetown's micro brewery resort - they brew alcoholic iced tea that is really popular with the locals) and counted down a couple more hours down before returning to the main docks to bring in 2012 with quite impressive amateur fireworks. HAPPY NEW YEAR IT WAS! and a 3am bed was well and truly welcomed.

12:01am - 1/1/12 with Claire, Rhi, Andrew, Myself and James

James and his kids returned to Nassau after moving Rhi and I into the guesthouse at Schooner Bay (the large real estate development that James is the Marketing manager for) and left us on the trusty wheels of his very old, yet classic Volvo. We spent the next couple of days exploring different small towns and beaches around Abaco and cooking up storms in the very nice guesthouse kitchen for our temporary room mates Dave and Mandy who look after all the Schooner guests. There are plenty of photos of Schooner bay which is a great real estate project. I will find it hard to not visit in the future with so much intrigue as to how amazing the finished development will be complete with school, fishing lodge, pub and a handy little population.

our lovely room at the guesthouse

Before we knew it our time in Abaco was over and we boarded another small yet slightly louder, older plane to Eleuthera and Harbour Island. It felt like our own charter as the weather was perfect (you could perfectly see the different depths and sand bars of the beautiful aqua below) and we were the only 2 on the plane other than the pilot. Great start to an amazing time in the Bahamas!

New York

As you can see from the photos we had a unique entry to the apple. Instead of the JFK landing we had a dusk arrival by bus from Boston. This is the best view of Manhattan i have ever seen. The side on view of this the most amazing metropolitan I have ever visited was awesome from the bus seat as we peaked over several bridges on the highway in. We disembarked in the middle of noodletown (Chinatown) and headed all the way up to just north of central park at 116st. We settled into a fairly cool apartment complete with full kitchen which we took advantage of by cooking in it all 4 nights, sharing the duties with Rhi and Timmy who I shared the room with. The first couple of days we showed Rhi times square and 5th avenue effectively showing her the way to the shops so she could visit later in the week. We also did plenty of christmas organising with several visit to Wholefoods securing in the end what would be an awesome chrissy lunch spread for the 8 of us staying in mid town. On the 22nd we moved into our midtown apartment on 38th st. Turned out we were living on the top (20th) story of a corporate building. The fella we rented it off is running a photoshoot / music studio but has decided he needs to rent the apartment out so that he can afford it. So on the weekend and public holidays we had 20 stories of Manhattan to our selves. We settled into this very cool place complete with views of the hudson and empire state building, 50" plasma and espresso machine. We spilt up during the first couple days doing various things. The girls did the avenue, Benny and I drooled through several guitar shops and the other guys did the tourism gigs. Our best night out was the 23rd as we walked up to the Rockefeller, through the crowds of awaiting ice skaters and tree viewers to a place Craig had heard of for its bucking bull. In we went and began drinking. Tim and i were the only game ones to sign the disclaimers and jump on the bull. We both performed well and showed the yanks how to ride the rough one! Having said that it was well humorous watching largish black women and one shameless white girl (who's skirt was rendered useless during her attempt and whose g-string we had full view of) get shaken about on the poor bull. Unfortunately Tim realised at midnight that the clocks had turned over to the 24th (Rob's Birthday) and the celebratory drinks flowed thick and fast making the night very special indeed. Taxi, pizza and bed is how the nights end in NYC! A slow hunger 24th it was and before we new it chrissy was upon us after a perfect round table little italy dinner made even more special by watching the B'bay boy attempt to eat his cupcake in a single chomp. The next day we hardly left our loft! We all donned our 'I love NYC' shirts that the girls grabbed for a steal in Chinatown (speaking of which the dumplings down there are awesome and cheap) and our santa hats. We then prepared the lunch table and handed out the long awaited, much discussed, not so secret secret santa gifts to each other. It turned out everyone at random got someone they knew except one (Ben from London got the new traveller Tim after meeting him only days earlier) which was in no doubt the best gift of them all. You can imagine the calibre of presents were low with a $10 budget and Ben got a gem! Lets just say it was the most horrible DVD you could ever imagine (some of the more sheltered readers will not be able to reach the level I'm talking about). This did not stop us all crowding around the plasma and sharing several laughs and the odd dry reach. The ice and alcohol filled bath became more empty as the hours and drinking games passed.

Boston

We flew up to Boston with a quick stopover in Charlotte and were immediately impressed by the inexpensive public transport which took us to our Back Bay hostel. There awaited the funniest (Rhi would say cutest) little receptionist who immediately offered us a cookie, free Starbucks coffee and popcorn before offering ideas for dinner in the area. It turns out there were quite a number of permanents in the 7 story accom which gave off a retirement village feel. We LOVED it! One night instead of eating out again we stayed in for the, now annual christmas tree decorating party which involved free chicken wings (mmmmm), pizza and Chrissy trivia. Rhi showed no mercy and answered several questions before the more senior permanents and scored a lovely shopping bag and 2 free movie tickets for doing so. Other nights in Boston included going to the cinemas and watching back to back movies (the old cinema jump chestnut), smashing some awesome indian set menu and a night out in Little Italy. We picked a little restaurant on a side street for our meal in Little Italy and were very impressed by the pasta we were served. On the way to the restaurant we had noticed a pastry shop packed full of people and decided we would stick our head in on the way back. "Mike's Pastry Shop" was amazing! They specialised in the Italian dessert cannoli's and had maybe between 20 and 40 flavours on offer (pretty much any flavour you can think of!). I went with the Oreo flavoured cannoli while Rhi chose a lemon cupcake. We ate our dessert in bed with a movie and they were delicious!! Make sure you pop into Mike's if you're ever in Boston. We also left our hostel after 3 nights and spoiled each other for Chrissy by going half in a 4 star night at the Ames before heading to NYC. Our days in Boston included lots of walking (which seams easy as the city is quite compact), an awesome lunch in chinatown, a visit to 'the' Harvard college (a very impressive town making lots of impressive people - Zuckerburg comes to mind), getting the crows tour of the city from the top of the Prudential lookout and several visits to Fanueil Hall (a 100m plus long foodmarket hallway offering anything the tastebuds desire surrounded by a square of shopping options). A great city and a good warm up for the biggest of apples!

Miami

After South America we agreed that although we missed the wonderful sights we really enjoyed the novelty of a hot shower, toilet paper and familiar retail in Miami. We arrived in the early evening and headed straight to Miami South Beach to our well rated hostel. The Miami International hostel has been rated in the top 10 U.S hostels on numerous occasions and its easy to see why. $25 a night and free breakfast, lunch and dinner is a handy offer. After a frustrating stop over in Mexico we were fairly buggered but were assured by the hostel staff that Sunday night was the best night to get involved in the drinking festivities. We had a glass of toughen up soon followed by several glasses of some pink vodka concoction that was being poured at reception. Then we jumped on a limo style bus complete with ridiculous laser lights and dancing poles. The short ride took us to Nikki Beach an impressive beachside club. Mattresses and tepees lined the sand with the pumping dance floors and stages offered inside. We were sitting at a suave outdoor table setup enjoying a few drinks ordered from the bar, when the waiter came up and informed us that the tables were for "table service only". After checking out the menu and realising one of the bottles of champagne was worth $10,000US, we decided to move inside to the dance floor. The next couple of days we checked out Lincoln Ave the major shopping and restaurant district in South Beach and visited the Seaquarium. For someone from Perth the dolphin and seal shows were like nothing i have ever seen. The photos speak for themselves. Tim, Craig and his brother Rob joined us for our last night in Miami which included a boys night out - plenty of drinks and laughter.
It turned out to be a very short stop over in Miami but we loved the beach suburbs, sea-creatures and social atmos! If you like beach and partying this is a must in the U.S  of A.

Quick stop in La Paz

We finally made it to La Paz after an extremely bumpy bus ride that was 4 hours longer than expected as it had to bypass a huge blockade! We started our day off with a random buffet breakfast we found and were excited that there were options other than just bread and jam! After brekkie we headed to the Witches Markets on the side of one of many of La Paz's hills. We spent many many hours wandering the markets and checking out the products - most of which were llama/alpaca products - jumpers, socks, beanies, gloves, scarfs and...fetuses. Apparently the Bolivian's buy dead llama fetuses and place them under the front doorstep of a new home to bring good luck. Gross. Because we had such a great day at the markets we had to find a post office and do our first big mail home (to make way for more shopping!) Definitely recommend the Witches Markets to fellow travellers, there's ALOT to check out and it's all dirt cheap. Unfortunately after our big day of shopping it was straight back onto another bus and onto Peru!

Bolivian 4wd Tour

Uyuni is a tiny town in Bolivia where most vehicles are Toyota Landcruisers. It is one of 2 towns that operate 4wd tours around the Bolivian highlands and famous Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats). The most popular tour is a 3 day experience which we signed up for. The salt flats are massive! and because of this allow you to take the silly perspective photos. These were far more enjoyable to review rather than take as we soon learnt that the locals had the art far better mastered. After a day driving with little sense of movement we spent our first night in a salt hostel on the edges of the flats. All the walls, bed frames and chairs are made entirely of salt bricks. We were served llama steaks for lunch and all were fairly pleased with the taste. Rhi was excited to learn that the Bolivian's are major exporters of quinoa and we saw being grown on the sides of the road and through most of the areas we drove on the first day. The second day you head deeper into the highlands enjoying the more challenging 4wdrving and varying scenery along with some colourful lagoons. The girls were excited to see lots of wild flamingo's at the many lagoons. We stayed the 2nd night in a little village before our last and longest 3rd day. An early wakeup was soon followed by a sharp climb to our highest (5000m) point of the drive where we walked amongst the geysers - volcanic boiling mud pools. Shortly after we spent half an hour bathing in volcanic hot springs not far away. After another (green) lagoon we headed back to Uyini via some amazing scenery. Paul (one of the dutch couple making up our group on 5) and i did some decent rock climbing as you'll see in the photos during one of our last stops near a 90km long earth rise resulting from tectonic plate movements a long time ago.
An amazing 3 days of scenery, 4wdriving, joking with our Spanish translator (who liked to be known as Robert deNiro), showering with a hose and enjoying the great food cooked for us along the way we arrived back in Uyuni and organised ourself for the trip up to Peru. For all those travelling to Uyuni - some good pre/post salt flat tour fest (probably the most western-ised food in Uyuni) can be found at Minuteman pizza. A guy from Boston married a Bolivian lady and decided to start a pizza shop - a fab result - delicious pizza...we tried 6 different types!!!

En route to Bolivian salt flats.

This simply deserved a blog of its own. I thought over a years travel we would run into some interesting experiences. Didn't take long as we were only 3 weeks in.

We flew out of Rio with 2 flights with the same company to Santa Cruz. Problem was our first flight didnt get to San Paulo in time for the 2nd. We also had the issue that we were going to loose our 3rd flight to Cochabamba with another company as a result. We didnt panic and got great help from an english speaking Bolivian to translate the staff's advice. To cut a long story short we spent a night and following day in a 4 star hotel in San Paulo with buffet, gym and pool to boot, all for free and paid sweet FA (50 aussie cents) to get our 3rd flight moved.

We spent the next 40 odd hours travelling on planes, buses, sleeping in airports and getting used to the high altitude, which neither Rhi, Taz or myself had to many issues with other than feeling terribly lazy/unfit/headachey for a couple days. We spent a night in Oruro which is not recommended. We checked out the markets and had a great traditional Bolivian dinner but realised we were the only tourists and found it hard to get to sleep with gunfire in the distance.

All in all an interesting, character building trip down to Uyuni, Bolivia for our 4WD salt flat tour.

Rio De Janeiro

We arrived in the large bus terminal and joined the even larger taxi line on our way to our Impanema beach house accomodation for some rest before exploring all (and theres a bit) that Rio has to offer.

FOOD
Our Impanema hostel was situated in the 'Cottesloe' of Rio so there was alot of good foodstuff to explore without walking more than 10 minutes. They love their Italian and Japanese food and we enjoyed both. The area and Rio in general seem to have a number of pay by the kilo lunch eateries which boast some awsome salads and marinated meats for you to fill you plate with. During our day on the beach we ticked off the coconut and straw option which we all agreed was very refreshing. The girls got obsessed with 'Viasete', an Italian resturant all of 30m from our doorstep. Around 10:30 pm we made the trek for the girls favourite chocolate brownie and/or hot chocolate. Other than that we did alot of our own cooking in Rio with 4 nights of Steak (massive), Hamburgers, Tacos and the favourite by far was Fish that Rhi baked. All the produce was great and very comparable to anywhere in Australia except about 10-15% cheaper.

PEOPLE
A very friendly bunch. All our tour guides were great and spoke good English and the hostel staff were great. The locals were also nice and I got involved with a bit of sport on the beach. Its an amazingly active place and I found it easy to sit on Copacabana beach and watch them play their style of volleyball (soccer rules). They love their outdoors and not wearing much. The girls got adventurous and purchased a pair of brazillian bikini's on the beach - photos to come! (joking)

CITY
AMAZING! A city peppered with cliffs and hills with tunels making it possible from West to East. Beaches are very good and thats coming from a Western Australian, although one day at the beach we noticed very little people swimming and later asked a pome and learnt that the currents were quite strong. My 5 minute dip pushed me at least 30m in one direction with good fun (however strong) waves. There is a massive lake in the middle of the city which the locals ski and row on. One thing that impressed us all was free gym equipment scattered everywhere throughout the city. Large areas of the city are areas where the poor live. These amazing growths out of the hills are known as the 'Favela´s' and our tour there was eye opening. Unfortunately these areas have in the past been run by drug dealers but with the Olympics and Football world cup visiting Rio in the next 5 years the authorities have began to clean up its slightly dodgey reputation and the city is becoming the better for it.  

HISTORY
Not alot jumps to mind other than the well documented Favelas (movies 'City of God' and 'City of Men'). I think what we learnt from our visit is that this city is living in the now and i will not recognise the place if I ever return. With the two largest world events being hosted in the next 5 years and then a jobs boom as a result of a massive offshore petroleum mass, this place will become even more attractive in a decade.

If you like beaches, rockclimbing, soccer and interesting city landscapes - Rio is a must.

Iguazu

So we headed off on the best bus class available for the 18 odd hour ride to Iguazu. Nice set up it was too with 180 degree (flat) bed seats. So when we arrived we were quite reluctant to jump off the comfy bus. Into the very cool hostel we went complete with outdoor cooking area by the pool. The next day it chucked it down, so we nervously left our waterfall trip to the next day knowing it would be our final chance. So after the quiet day off cooking and consuming we went to bed with fingers crossed. It worked! Fine day (not as forecast) awaited us for the trip to the falls after Rhi and I picked up our Brazilian visa's.
We spent the day exploring one of the new natural wonders of the world. As you can see from the flickr photos hundreds of awesome waterfalls cascading though the jungle peppered with wildlife. I think one of the main problems with South America is they simply don’t charge enough for their jewels. It cost us less than $70 Aus for the whole day which included the optional jet boat under some of the falls. They equip you with a waterproof bag and you get absolutely soaked as they steer the boats under the falls (a must do if you go). You will have to wait for the holiday ending feature film to see the in boat footage. Devils throat is the largest waterfall of them all as you will see in some of the pics. To get here you take the free little train around the top of the national park and then trek on the overwater walkway for over 1km to the perfect viewing deck which is dauntingly close to the powerful waterway.
Our last morning was relaxing with a final feed of leftover pasta before jumping on the less amazing 24hour bus to Rio!
If you like waterfalls DO THIS!                         Thanks Iguazu - MAH

Buenos Aires

After a quick (10 hour) stop over in Madrid from London we headed South to Argentina's capital where we spent 7 days exploring everything the city has to offer whilst soaking up the piercing sun.
CITY
We did copious amounts of walking and covered the majority of the metropolitan area. The sidewalks can be at times, similar to the surface of the moon and many are lined with scaffolding that climbs up the sides of alot of the buildings. On some of the major city walkways there are permanent markets aswell as many others opening up on the weekends. These are great places to checkout. We gave the trainline and buses both a go. We wouldnt recommend either of these after dark but are fine during the day. We all enjoyed La Boca. An area that is well known for its bright coloured buildings and passion for football. The last lunch we had in Buenos Aires was in a La Boca beer garden which you walk past the massive BBQ (Kitchen) to get to. Amazing lunch and probably the most South American we have felt yet. Palermo was also a nice area. It gives off an up market vibe and the main square is a great place to enjoy lunch.
HISTORY
One morning we enjoyed a tour including a video that gave us a summary of the past 100 years in the city. We were then taken on foot to the streets where the protestors had walked and the buildings were bombed. We visited the "Pink House" where the president now works which was once bordered by a river. We learnt of the inspirational people that had come and gone which has left a very passionate city. People today still march the iconic areas to fight for both modern rights and justice from past atrocities.
PEOPLE
Passionate and kind although aesthetically challenged. We were all blown away one evening at about 5pm when we heard noises from our hostel. Over the following hour tens of thousands of people marched the Avenue De Majo (where many of the marches are held) for gay pride. We saw teenagers all the way through to a man of about 80 on crutches enjoying the festivities. All in all the locals are very welcoming to English speaking travellers. Coming from WA (probly one of the most beautiful populations in the world) you cant help but think some Argentinian's resemble our neanderthal primates and we did not see many lookers during our stay (note from Rhi - though many of the boys did fall in love with our tango teacher and walking tour guide!!!)
FOOD
Buenos Aires is said to be the 2nd most expensive South American city so dont get unreasonable ideas of how cheap the place is before visiting, however there are many times we bought things wondering 'how do they do it for the price'. It is cheaper on average than any place I have been in my life but not by as much as some people say. The food is fine though. every street has fresh cooking caramelised nuts and some awesome food can be found at the large weekend markets for bugger all Pesos. We cooked in the Hostel for several nights, but the nights we ventured out for a bite we were not dissapointed, nor really impressed.
HIGHLIGHTS
5. The complete BBQ experience in La Boca for our final lunch which included intestines, kidneys and every other part of a pig, cow, chook or sheep.
4. The weekend markets in Recoleta and San Telmo were great to explore even though all we ended up purchasing was Argentina bracelets (really need to clear space in our bags).
3. Tango night out which involved a quick lesson in which we all excelled followed by a 3 course meal and full tango show. The steak we had that night was one of the best ever we all agreed.
2. Drunken night drinking at the Louder Millhouse Hostel up the Majo from ours. Drinking games and ridiculously strong drinks resulted in many of laughs.
1. The unexpected stampede of gays right past our balcony. As the photos show it was nothing like any of us have seen before.
Gracias Buenos Aires.
MAH.   (for all the pics check out the flickr link and Rhi's pics on F.book)
  

Exploring London

And so the sightseeing began after a top shelf 'Bon Iver' concert at the impressive Hammersmith Apollo and a big curry cook up for the 440'ers. Rhi and I started with the V&A museum, Harrods and Westminster checking out Big Ben and the eye. That night we also travelled the short journey to Kentish Town, guitar in hand and busted out some open mike night tunes. Myself still finding my way around the mike and Benny churning out yet another solid and experienced set. The second day we timed our visit to Lizzys Buckingham palace to see the wet weather version of the changing of the guard. I saw the palace a decade ago so i think i can be forgiven for forgetting how ugly of a building it is. After watching some poms on horses trot past the palace we headed though the always impressive Hyde park. Next we tubed back into the action of Trafalgar square and smashed a very handy stuffed spud in the process. After lunch we made our way up through the Covent Garden shopping alleys and down the repetitively commercialised Oxford st. If you like the big brands 4 times over go for Oxford st. If you like finding hidden little alley shops explore Covent Garden. That night we headed back into the city to a night of 'Proud Caberet' to watch our extremely talented roomate Cess bust the moves whilst we devoured a 3 course meal and the odd cocktail. A sleep in day found us eventually and we used the afternoon to visit Abbey rd and walked through Hampstead Heath during sunset (A MUST). Friday night I showed Rhi what a standard flying horse night is all about. After the drinking, dancing and tubing we grabbed the deservedly famous Rosey Kebab. The last weekend in London town had arrived and I had a footy filled day at both the pub and park with Jamie whilst Rhi opportunistically got up early and got the last cheap (5quid) ticket to 'Matilda' the musical matinee. Sunday we headed for Portobello rd in Notting Hill for breakfast and exploring the markets and of course movie scenes. After that we headed back to marble arch for the unique experience of 'Speakers Corner'. On the corner of Hyde park political and religious vocalists stand on either a box or steps and blast the onlooking crowd with some of their warped opinions. Add a couple really drunks and opinionated onlookers and youve got an entertaining half hour. We then walked through the park and down to the natural history museum which is almost too big for one visit so Rhi and I explored only the highlights. We started the week with a visit to the large Foyles bookshop to spend the BDO voucher i got from work and got some bound travel companions. We then spent the remaining days organising travel stuff with visits to Camden markets, Shepherds Bush shopping and finished my London stay off with a pub dinner with the 440'ers. Off we flew after some early morning tubing with luggage (avoid if possible). Pics are on Flickr.MAH

Rhi's Arrival and Grove Weekend

Finished work on Thursday 20th and got an early night before jumping on off the long tube ride down to Heathrow to pick up Rhiannon. Hugs all round and then we made our way up to the rural North West corner of London to Watford and grabbed a taxi to the 5 star Grove. Its safe to say i may never stay at such a nice place again in my life. Friday afternoon we explored the perfect grounds and caught up on some sleep. Then we headed for the international buffet that blew our minds and almost our stomachs. Seriously most things you could imagine eating were on offer. So after curry's, tapas, roasts, peking ducks, fondue, stick date and much more we headed for the pool/spa and bed.
The 2nd day we spent bike riding around the world class golf course, local canals and woodlands. I hit 50 balls of the driving range whilst Rhi made friends with my camera. We then got an hour massage each and I explored all the other spa facilities whilst Rhi got a facial. Another great dinner at the stables restaurant then room service desert. The final day at the lovely Grove was spent reading books in the greenhouse and then watching the Manchester derby before making our way back into the metro and up to lovely Highate.

Dusting off the 440 weber

One of the best Sundays yet at the 440. The day started slow with no solid plans in place. We had been meaning to get the fairly unused Weber fired up and we reminded ourselves of this in time to go for a mid-day shop. I took charge of a leg of lamb and Anneliese planned a char grilled chicken.

slicing and dicing the yummy sheep

Benny ears pricking up at the thought "ANNARIESE IS THAT CHICKEN I SMELL?"

Life is good in London when its 25 degrees plus, not a cloud in the sky, beer in hand, North London soccer derby on TV and the Weber excreting some seriously good smells. The whole 440 crew crowded around and feasted on an super spread.

NUM NUM NUM

Twiggy doing the lamb lap

Gals grabbing best movie posi's

Lick it!! (house joke)

As per usual we all assumed our Sunday night movie watching positions throughout the lounge and watched Aussie made 'Snowtown'.

A great farewell to London's summer. MAH

Oktoberfest

A group of 10 of us flew in to Munich at various times on the Friday. Myself and 3 of the lads got in early and headed straight to a pub to join a strong Victorian contingent watching the Pies v Hawks prelim final. After lunch, beers and a bloody good game of AFL we headed for the fest via the impressive Munich underground tube. We walked out into the biggest party Ive ever seen! Its like the royal show for beer. World class roller coasters and rides surround the warehouse sized beer tents. The event fills up with up to 60,000 people per day.

dee-bag stealing much needed sunnies in the bright German sun

We were extremely lucky with the weather (as the first weekend was wet) and enjoyed an outdoor beer garden for our first steins. It is very easy to get lost from each other in the walkways at the fest and we all spent the first night meeting up and loosing each other but all made it to bed eventually and passed out on our pillows. The girls had arrived Friday evening so our whole gang headed straight back into the fest in the Saturday AM. The rest of the day and night were spent in another beer garden drinking lots, eating the odd pork knuckle (an amazing crackle surrounded piece of Oinky loveliness) and dancing into the night on tables. Sunday was much of the same fun except thanks to the wonderful roommate Dee-bag, we got a table in the impressive Hofbrau tent. 16 hours of sing along songs, more beer & pork and some characters to remember throughout the day and night.

Hofbrau tent

Very fun coaster

the 440 festers - Jamie, Ben, Dee, me.

Top 5 votes have got to be:

5) Nikki for going from sitting quietly all day to suddenly dominating the table dancing

4) Benny eating a juicy German pickle

3) Jamie for getting so drunk that he fell out of a bumper car whilst driving it. According to him he has "never know fear until he stood in the middle of an active bumper car session"

2) Dee-bag for skulling a pint and putting up with the resulting Italian attention

1) Willow for destroying 3 steins in single gulps. Fastest in the whole tent by a margin.

WELL DONE LUMBERJACK!

All in all a great party on a massive scale! Monday travels back to North London pretty much finished us and our melting brains off.

Great FEST! - MAH

Scotland.

The Camden Debut

I have been teaching myself guitar for the past couple years and finally organized to get up and do an open mike night performance. Benny my roommate has all the required equipment and there is a great place a couple tube stops away in Camden Town. It is a great Sunday afternoon cafe for music aside the canals with some lovely organic grog. So we headed in put our names down (i was first up, followed by the experienced Ben) then went to a nearby pub to lubricate the voice boxes (and maybe some nerves).

We kicked it off at 8pm and the nerves that i hadnt really felt to much just happenned to kick in as i strummed the simple opening chords to Sir Paul Kelly's (who i has seen live only 4 nights earlier) 'To Her Door' causing me to forget the unforgettable first line. After a couple 3 chord loops i was off and strumming. According to the great support group i had there watching (thanks guys) i looked & sounded a bit like a new fish during the first tune but looked more at ease during the 2nd (Lonely Soldier - Damien Rice) and 3rd (NY - My only finished Original). From my point of view i enjoyed all of it and will be back to give it another crack in the near future once i have finished a couple more of the many 'work in progress' songs.

Scotland

Chrissy (soon to be heading back to Oz) Armstrong suggested Scotland and more specifically Ben Nevis as a final little excursion. He invited a couple people here and there figuring that they wouldn't all be available. About 6 weeks later 11 of us flew up to Glasgow on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend. During the first 45 minutes of this trip the chief organizer of the trip (Chrissy) handed me a plastic sleeve full of bookings and calmly requested the taxi to pull over as he had forgot any form of photo I.D. The remainder of the trip to Luton Airport was fare from the expected flat as we all researched madly on phones on how Armstrong could possibly get to Glasgow. In the end he missed the flight and had a lovely 7-hour sleep on the train up and met us at the Saturday breakfast table. We picked up one more traveller there and two rental cars and headed for Big Ben Nevis, about a 3-hour drive from Glasgow. The 3 hour drive was fairly hectic as I was passenger in the following convoy carrying 7 decent people and Mrs Senna decided to speed away from us at every opportunity. Lovely girl she turned out to be, just a bloody terrible driver. Once we had our iphone up and going we let her disappear into the distance and enjoying a more calm approach to the loch side drive. We had all heard mixed rumours on how serious the awaiting climb was and weren't to intimidated upon arrival at the base camp pub.

The next 5.5 hours we ascended and descended Ben Nevis. Awesome views and photo ops a plenty. The last hour of the climb is spent in the cloud and just when you think you've hit the top another 10 minutes of mountain comes into view. We were extremely lucky to have the cloud break up for most of the time we rested at the peak. 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). We took happy snaps, ate Hummus and contemplated the intimidating return to the cold frothy awaiting us at the bottom. All in all a great way to spend a day getting in amongst the Scottish highlands. The beer, curry and sleep waiting at the bottom were almost as good as the climb itself.

The next morning we had a cafe cook up and then the 2 cars went their separate ways (5 back to Glasgow and 7 of us off to Edinburgh). The next three hours drive was one of the better ones I have enjoyed in my life. Although I may have been to these areas before, my more attentive eyes were blown away by the highlands scattered with waterfalls, lochs, roadside bagpipers and it was all made better by the iPod connecter we picked up at Argos on the way out of Fort William. TUNES and SCENERY!

We arrived to a buzzing Edinburgh (even with rain falling). When Chris initially had the Scotland idea I clicked for Google and sure enough our visit was to fall on the last weekend of the world famous Fringe Festival. We dropped of our bags at our amazing hostel(Caledonian Backpackers)and headed into the box office. After a fun conversation trying to book tickets we successfully booked into 2 gigs. Both performances were great laughs with the second ('Best of the Fest') topping the trip off with 3 Irishmen (Jimeoin included), 1 Welshmen and 1 American. After some pool 3:30am welcomed the pillow.

The final day was fairly uneventful with a nice 4-hour train ride back to London. My 2 room mates Ben and Jamie had bought unreserved tickets so being an obviously busy train back to the capital we spent the majority of it at the bar enjoying the last hours of our long weekend.

  My first London bank holiday weekend was great!

Thanks Scotland. MAH. Pics on the flickr

25 hour Cardiff experience

Well well. I had mentioned to the lads for a while that England were playing Wales (rugby union) at Millennium stadium and we eventually booked it all up 5 days before the game. The only issue was that there was no accomodation for the Saturday night in Cardiff..mmmm. I think it might have been me that asked "what time does the first bus come back?". Problem solved..........
So the five of us sloped (fairly larger than desired Friday night) onto a 8:30am bus to Wales. Off the bus and into a packed pub. Red clad Welshman a plenty. So lovely pub lunch it was and then we descended on the stadium with the rest of the punters.

The anthems, rugby and general atmosphere were amazing!
After the game we drank, danced and soak up the victorious Welsh vibe from 4pm straight through to 4am when we departed back to London. The 12 hours of pubs, clubs and streets started slow but gained speed as we all spend times separated (some by accident, some by choice, and some by bouncers) bumbling around the very entertaining alleys of Cardiff.
All in all a great 25 hour excursion.

Pics on Flickr.. MAH

Moving up to the 440

So it was a matter of time before i gave into the crazy 440 bunch. Last Sunday i did two bus trips and moved out of 'the finch' and into a second story large room at the famous '440'. There's a total of 8 inhabitants.

Lee (Nanny of the 440), chef of amazing PIE!

Benny boy - provider of perfect music and putrid gas

  verbal diarrhea kid

From the left - Anneliese, Twiggy, Jamie, Self, Benny and Leeanne

 Amazing first night involved a 3 course meal, guitars, red wine and a starry sky (yes in London).

London has more than Perth……….

More	Thoughts
Public Transport	The tube and bus systems are very comprehensive. This also covers the whole country. You can easily catch a bus/train out to festivals, other UK cities including most of the airports. Spose in Perth you can go to Mandurah!!! YaY (no offence intended Gran & Pop)
Food places open after the pubs & clubs	Don’t get me wrong I love a kebab, but its nice to have some port frothy food variety.
More music	Buskers operate in most tube stations which is cool and a handy distraction from all the ugly poms.
Dentally challenged individuals	A lot of locals remind me of Collingwood supporters. Rough stuff.
Whingeing tightarses	They just cant stop complaining about how expensive (which it isnt) things are and how bad the weather is. Smile people.
Daylight	I don’t want to rant on about it but daylight savings is A GREAT THING for those that want it, and doesn’t effect those that don’t.
Smokers	Not cool - piss off with your poison people
Night entertainment	Ive booked up for some create artists, and plan on doing the Phantom and Phanton II back to back at some stage. Ive got plenty of time.
Rain	Hasn’t bothered me to much yet other than a very boring game of AFL.
More cool places nereby	Europe a bus / train away.
Internet Delivery	hungryhouse.co.uk - enough said

The unofficial Sunday tradition...

So after a fairly active Saturday (Chrissy and I  both putting in solid performances for the North London Lions) Sunday yet again was reduced to the arts of drinking a talking complete and utter shite with the very entertaining bunch from the 440 (a town house up the road sheltering currently 8 young visionaries). These Sundays seem to start in the early PM and initiate at the local watering hole of choice before, after a hearty meal and a pint or two we all converge back on the famous '440'. If the weather is good the rear garden is the place to take the purchased ales but if mother nature does not choose to grace us with vital vitamin 'd' we all disperse copious amounts of methane throughout the paint stripped lounge watching the quality....TV that Britain has on offer.

6pm-ish expires and not a long period of time unwinds before someone makes the very easy, executive decision to loudly suggest "CURRY"! The closest laptop is summoned and we surf (what is a very cool website where you can order any takeway to your door) the 'hungry house.co.uk for the one, the only 'indian chef' .... The most recent Sunday saw the us Finchley imposters go halves in the hottest curry available. Lets just say i had the stabbies and went a bit dizzy whilst Chrissy only complained of waking in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

Cant wait til next Sunday. MAH      

London Life

The Finch
So i have been at the Finch (East Finchley Flat) since arriving in London, but have in the last week or so settled off the lounge and into a room. Its a great flat about a 2 minute walk from the tube and 30 seconds less to the pub. Lisa (Canadian) has made way for her fellow countryman Adam and the aussie mechanic, Trev made way for myself. All in all a very cool flat in a super location.

Work
So I have almost completed my first week at Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (Website). Its a wonderful foundation that puts millions of pounds into such a diversified range of causes. Its an amazing company considering it now has a investment portfolio of almost a billion pounds which all started 50 years ago around a kitchen table brainstorming cuppa tea. I have come in on a contract role to assist in the completion of several projects within the finance department. The offices are only 6 tube stops from the finch which translates to about 30 minutes traveling which is very good for London. A couple competitors back in Perth will be disappointed to see a ping pong table in the video below. Have already found form on the new surface and will be well scoped when i return hacks (you know who you are).


Pics on Flickr also.
So all in all very lucky with the current setup in little old London town. MAH

London Birthday

'the crab tree' in Fulam - recommend

Well it was my first bday away from everyone so in case you were wondering what i got up to. The day started slow and i had to be waken up by an impatient girlfriend. Lucky it was her. So that got me up and had a skype catch up with the graylands rd crew back home. Then I watched freo kick a shitload of behinds and get the points over the lions, not without injuring a couple more of our top 10 players.
We (bec, chrissy, ben and i) then set off on the tube to Fulham and met up with some friends of friends that were celebrating 2 years of living in London before they make their way home. The weather was awsome so we soaked up the sun, BBQ menu, beers, ciders and spirits. Eventually we called it quits and returned home via a dirty burger joint. All in all a great first up birthday abroad.

A day at Wimbledon

Very early start which was help by the awakening cool air on the short walk to the tube. Unfortunately when you get in the tube it is fairly warm so the eyes return to their pre-shower, heavy state. A couple tubes and then we followed all the other punters to the oval queuing area. What a well organized show they put on! You are marshaled to your place in the line and given a card with your number (2151 for me). That ensured Bec and i we were going to see tennis as 6000 entry tickets are given away each day. So we spent the next 3 hours in line speaking to the locals, getting all the tips for the day, flicking through the paper, defrosting in the morning sun and having some breaky. The queue snakes into the Wimbledon grounds and the free promos and tennis trivia and challenges flow. After a quick airport like bag check you have tickets in your hand and you enter the royal facility. Again the organization is amazing (not to mention its cool that your allowed to take in a bottle of wine alcohol equivalent each person and all the food you want. I haven't seen that at many other events). All show courts for general entry are still closed until 10:30 and then a line of arm linked security walk the crowd slowly to prevent any mad dashes. I dodged my way to the front and got Bec and I two front row seats on court 3. There we stayed for the majority of the day and saw some very even matches boasting some skillful and entertaining shots. To complete the Wimbledon experience we took it in turns to walk around the amazing grounds and shop for the sweet essentials (strawberries and cream & pimms), and ducked under an adopted blanket for a minor rain delay or 2. All in all for 20 pounds general entry the day was a great experience as it would be for anyone that loves a sport and subsequently visits its birthplace. Well pleased!

pics are on flickr as well.  MAH
 

Company underground

Today i finished a 'Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance' that whilst on the opposite side of the world, taught me more about the history of my home country than any teacher or book has attempted to pound into my, at times thick skull. I came across this book via another must read. Paul Kelly in his memoir 'How to make gravy' states that this book should be on all school syllabus's and denotes the main subject as a "True Australian hero". Such words from Sir Kelly told me i had to get a copy which i did before coming abroad. I'll no doubt pass my copy to Mum/Dad when they visit me soon. Do yourself a favor and either get a copy or be the first to visit them when they return.  

For someone that has struggled to find interesting literature in the past, i now find the best way is to takes down recommended/referenced pros from pros I'm reading. Autobiographies (or as they are more modernly know as memoirs or chronicles) are i think my favorite and best for finding ideas for your next book. I don't think Ive ever done this before but today i finished said book and immediately started the next. That being a freshly purchased (with my BDO gifted voucher  - thanks guys) 'The Fry Chronicles'. 21 pages in and enjoying it thoroughly. Have laughed out loud on the tube several times already. Oh yer and its a UK no.1 bestseller so cant be to sedative. Anyway back to the window to read long into the daylight saved evening. MAH

Something BIG for visiting shoppers

Yesterday i ventured down Charing cross rd to a street known for its musical instrument stores. I know what some of you are thinking....what did he bye??  Happy to report that i haven't purchased another guitar..yet. Amazing place if your into anything musical.

Denmark st, London. Musician's heaven

Today i went to Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush. I dont know how to describe that place. I certainly enjoyed the novelty of being in a place of such proportions but cant see myself as a constant visitor. For those that love those places i recommend you get a night in the closest hostel so you can take at least 2 days to scale the ridiculous material wonderland.

Westfield Shopping Centre, Shepherds Bush, London. Shoppers heaven.

Unemployment and fitness..

Well I've been back in London town now for more than a week. For the first time in years i did some sort of exercise every working day of the week. Well and truly back into the best sport on this planet. My roommate Chrissy took me along to a 3rd grade game with his adopted club the North London Lions (http://www.aussierules.co.uk/index.php) they mistakenly identified that i had played the game during the warm up and started me on ball. Played through the middle all day and clock up a solid amount of clangers. The cobwebs were just as thick as i thought. Backed it up with both training sessions this week at the wonderful, must visit regents park

and played a little better today finding the ball ok in 2nd grade. Just the kicking that leaves plenty to be desired.
The competition is very interesting with rules that make sure even the 1st grade has so many non-aussies on the ground at any time during the match. The lions are a great club full of great characters and some very handy footy players.

Although im planning on getting a job in the next couple working weeks i must admit unemployment is far better than people suggest. Ive enjoyed that sleep ins and late nights out. The pm scene is great here with some top areas not to far from 'the finch' (East Finchley, my most likely place of abode for 2011). Camden town is a hot spot for both the markets during the day and cool clubs come night. Some aussie and kiwi mates ive made that live close by work at a run of the mill city corner pub called 'The flying horse'.

We have kicked off our last 3 Friday nights here and had a ball! The girls no how to get a fun atmosphere cranking whether it be table dancing, getting piggyback rides from the seedy working class or walking to their neighboring competition and poaching customers.

All in all, life is a little to easy as you can see. Time to knuckle down and get back to the slog. MAH

Ireland - in motion and sound

What a great place. Would recommend it to anyone. Beautiful place with beautiful people and sounds. The only thing i would recommend when you go there is to change your wake up alarm to say 11am and then stay up every night until the morning. That is when the place really comes alive.

Dublin - 30 May - 1 June 2011

Arrived in Dublin city centre in the early hours of the evening and headed for my new hostel (Globetrotters). Quick shower and headed out to find some dinner. I found a little Italian restaurant not far from where i was staying and had an awesome meal. I relaxed for the remainder of the evening by reading my book and getting this blog to work.
Monday morning i jumped off the top bunk (they were much easier to scale in my younger years) and just made it to the complimentary buffet breaky that this great hostel provides. That gave the what i need for a massive day on my feet. I walk 30 min out of the city centre to the Jamison (Irish Whiskey) distillery for a great tour which involved more consumption than id imagined. Most people would ask, why here not the Guinness factory? Simple... I don't like that dam water and had heard from others that Jamison was the better tour option. I walked back to town via Dublin castle and the famous Temple Bar. By the time i  got back to the hostel the bottom of my feet needed a rest so i relaxed with my book before returning to the Temple.
Many of people say that Temple bar is really expensive. Really its just like a night out in Subiaco or Fremantle. I got a meal and pint promo deal at the 'Stockhouse' pub and believe it or not mum, ordered a casserole (can you please find a recipe for a Irish Guinness casserole to slide into your meal bible). Had a great meal and pint watching the french open tennis and then found a seat at the bar for a young couple playing trad music. They were very good and got the pub going (as youl see once i put the video together). After listening to them for an pint or 3 i went a watch some stand up comedy which was a good chuckle. After this and another pint i walked back to the hostel.
Wednesday, my last day in wonderful Ireland. Once again off on foot i trekked. I visited the national library, museum and gallery. I had to return to the hostel to charge up my batteries for the most antisipated part og my trip.
I walked up towards towards Vicar st very excited about seeing an artist i discovered on youtube nearly a year ago and who was known for his live delivery.
'Tallest man on Earth' did not disappoint, as he made is way through all of his great songs the Dublin crowd soaked up the utter talent and his genuine love for performing live, especially with a bunch of his family members were the warm up band (Francis - http://www.myspace.com/francisishere  - Sweedens Little Birdy)..GREAT WAY TO FINISH THE TRIP!


Im one of the silhouettes in the front row to the left ..

Galway - 29/5/2011

Twas a quick flight from Waterford North to Galway. Was definitely the shortest flight i have ever been on. Only enough to read the forward and introduction to my new book (Jandarmarra and the Bunuba resistance). After a speedy check in and shower at my new hostel i headed for the main streets of Galway. Quick Shepard's pie and froth and then made my way to a pub which the cabbie had told me some musicians were playing at. The next 4 hours i watched 3 fiddlers, 2 guitarists and a piano accordionist bust out traditional Irish music to a packed pub. It was up there with the best live music i have seen. Certainly the most unique and skillful i think.

A grey old lady said to me numerous times that "tiss fiddler, shes special tiss one. I is well grey and i seen em all i have, and shes the best". They played fast paced Irish folk music for 20 minutes at a time with the odd 3 minutes break. The longer the song went the higher the notes they employed creating an atmosphere in the pub to remember. I eventually pulled myself away from this pub and tried several others (all with great live music) before hitting the sack in the wee hours of the morn. The following day i walked the streets

and enjoyed some 5 star fish and chips while listinging to more great music in the form of several buskers before catching the bus to Dublin.
My ears will miss you Galway!  - see the link to my flickr for pics and videos will follow later this week. MAH