Triathlon Training

The BRW Sprint Triathlon is now only 1 week away...

I have to say a big thanks to Dimi for the big improvement in my swimming stroke; I have now doubled how far I can go without having to take a break!!!

Thanks to all you that have donated to the Starlight Foundation and for those who haven't done yet, Tennille has offered to double whatever we raise so please donate kindly... thanks, Stephen

Kuala Lumpur - Traders

so, for our last 2/3 days of our big trip, we decided to glam it and stay at Traders overlooking KLCC.
It's a lovely hotel, with great views of the Petronas Towers from the rooms as well as the Sky Bar / Pool. We met up with Nick Smith here for a few beers on our last night.
We disposed of all the old, travelled clothes and shopped a wee bit ready for our job hunt in Brisbane...\
Next stop, Queensland...

Malaka

After leaving SG, we took the bus up to Malaka.
We didn't know what to expect from Malaka but it was so good we stayed an extra day. Malaka's history is as rich or more than Singapores. We stayed at Sunny's Inn, which was a great place to stay with friendly staff.
The Roti Chania's were great opposite Sunny's and we took in a couple of movies, a bit of shopping and the local museums. We also had a great couple of nights in Chinatown, getting home on the rickshaw's.
So, we had a great time in Malaka and then we headed for KL knowing our holiday was almost over...

Singapore

We had a wonderful time in Singapore with Darina and Thomas.
We entered Singapore on the bus from Johor Bahru on the way to meet Darina, funnily enough a stones throw away from the DHL office in SG. Darina and Thomas live in the CBD district in a great appartment that includes the use of tennis courts and swimming pools, so we definitely made the most of our stay, swimming, playing tennis (Tennille winning again but this time it was pretty close with 2 very long games that could've tipped it my way - one day!!!) enjoying great hawker food and walk around the city.
Singapore has a wonderful history and the asian cultural museum is definitely worth a visit...

Tioman Island

We arrived at Mersing and took the busy ferry over to Tioman Island.
Our homework had told us that Selang, the last stop and 2 and a half hours away, had most of the reasonably priced places to stay.
Selang has a real surfy feel with no surf and we had a good time, with some great food and lots of friendly locals.
However, the local sand flies were a pain and the massive lizards kept Tennille on her constant guard.
Lots of cats though reminded her she'd see Barney in a weeks time...

Kuantan

We arrived in Kuantan determined to take in the Elephant Sanctuary. To our dismay it was actually 3 hours away - my fault for not doing enough homework on this one. To make matters worse the buses to Tioman were fully booked for the next 2 days so we went ahead and booked for the day after and sought a hotel.
We stayed near the bus station trying 2 different places over the 2 nights.
Kuantan has a really nice, clean beach, which is 5 or 6k away and this gave us a good walk.
It's also got a wonderful mosque, great local markets and we stopped at one restaurant to watch the Manchester derby and were rewarded with some tremendous dishes - pork, prawns and chicken - mmmm....

Taman Negara

We took the high speed boat from Bubbles back to Kuala Besut then boarded the bus to Taman Negara.
Taman Negara is a rainforest in central Malaysia reported to be 130m years old and it is teaming with life.
From our porch at the cheap-and-cheerful Park Lodge hotel we saw a tribe of at least 25 monkeys moving through the trees with more than a few taking great interest in us sitting there watching them.
The jungle itself is across a little river crossing, which is all very cute.
We headed for the canopy walk firstly - the largest appeal to TN and rightly so. It is the longest in the world and at 25m up it's pretty cool.
We also took a few short treks through the jungle getting lost at one point.
We had a great 2 days...

Bubbles, Parinthian Islands

We didn't think anywhere would come close to the beaches we experienced in Fiji last year during our honeymoon but the Parinthian Islands come very close.
We stayed at Bubbles for a couple of days and nights. Bubbles is pretty much the last resort on the big Parinthian island and has a bay all of it's own, with crystal clear waters and a cute little beach.
The beach and bay are also used by the many turtles who lay their eggs here and I was lucky enough to see one whilst snorkelling along with a stingray and many different colours and types of fish. The water is crystal clear here and very clean. Bubbles has a popular dive school here.
Tennille and I found ourselves alone on the beach for much of both days although all the chalets were taken - it's not the biggest of resorts here so you do get lots of peace and quiet.
In saying that the staff are excellent; extremely friendly and the food is very good at a very reasonable price.
As we make our way around Malaysia we are just loving the variety of experiences although one thing is constant; the friendliness and openness of the Malaysian people is a real treat and something we will not take for granted.

Penang - Trekking, Hawker Food and Cooking Class

What a wonderful time we had in Penang.
We stayed in Love Lane Inn in Georgetown with the hospital and very informative Mr. Jimmy. Jimmy was definitely the mr fix-it and was able to help us with everything we needed to do or know.
We visited the National Park on the North West side of the island and trekked to Monkey Beach where we were greeted by several of the local monkeys - they were really cute but again we were upset by the amount of rubbish people leave around and one of the monkeys had a stump for a left arm, which only served to compound our increasing desire to tidy up the planet.
The food in Penang was excellent and we visited the Red Garden Hawker food court both nights and had completely different food both times from some of the many hawkers there - great food at great prices - probably one of the best food courts in the world and beats the western concept of fast food courts hands down.
To try to re-create the Red Garden delicacies we contacted Pearly Kee through the wonders of google and she offered to teach us 4 or 5 dishes during a one day cooking class. Pearly and her husband Chundra are absolutely wonderful hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed our cooking class and are now armed with 4 or 5 knockout dishes - so if we invite you around for dinner, you know what we will be cooking up - a few Penang specials...

Cameron Highlands

We never realized we loved trekking as much until this year.
After our trekking in South America we jumped at the chance of trekking through the Malaysian jungle in Cameron Highlands - 4 hrs by bus from Kuala Lumpur.
We arrived around lunchtime and headed straight away to a short jungle trek that ended at a tea plantation. The tea plantations are wonderfully scenic and we had a great afternoon. We managed to hitch a lift back to Tanah Rata to our hotel before enjoying some Indian dinner at night.
The next day had us up and out by 8am for a 6 hour, 20k trek through fantastic jungle, to another tea plantation before walking back past the multiple strawberry farms.
The strawberry farms are great where you can pick your own and enjoy lots of strawberry drinks and dishes.
Cameron offers 14 trails, some through the jungle and some easier.
It's also nice and cool compared with the heat of KL and Penang.
A must to visit whilst in KL if you enjoy walking and trekking.

Kuala Lumpur

I remembered how much I enjoy KL last week.
Dinners with Yogan, Sri, Su Li and Chui Ha, trips to Batu Caves and FRIM trekking, and shopping at all the different malls, as well as going to the movies for the 1st time in months - it was great to be back in KL.

Cairo, Egypt

We just arrived back in Edinburgh after a cool week with Stephanie in Cairo.
We stayed at the Marriott in Cairo, which turned out to be a great idea as, although the city has numerous amazing touristic sites, you can certainly tell that 18m people live there as it smoggy, dirty and busy.
We arranged a guide to take us around the Pyramids in Giza, which was nice, however, she was not particularly informative or lively. That said; wow! the Pyramids certainly are a wonder of the world and a magnificent feat for the Egyptians.
We didn't arrange a guide for the museum or the citadel and had good trips at a fraction of the expense and organized a friendly taxi driver we met to take us to Alexandria for the day, which was a great day out.
Generally we found the Egyptians to be quite pushy and one taxi driver ripped us off, however, we did find one or two freindly faces and some very good food in the Nile river boat restaurants.
It was great to spend a week with Steph in the sun and we arrived back to a sunny Edinburgh - would you believe it!?!

Santiago

We have been in Santiago for 3 days now and have had a great time. It has a similar feel to Buenos Aires, with many great restaurants and leafy suburbs. We think this be what to expect from Brisbane or other Australian cities and we are looking forward to that.
It's been good to be on our own again doing our own thing and the food has been sensational accompanied by great Chilean red wine and even a bottle of bubbly.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is considered one of the new 7 wonders of the world and I firmly agree with that - it's beauty is stunning.
We arrived at Aguas Calientes the night before and started the trek of the 1610 steps up to Machu Picchu at 4am in the morning. It was a tough trek that took us an hour and a half but the satisfaction was great, especially seeing the many people who took the bus up. We picked up our tickets to climb Wanipicchu before having a 3 hour guided tour of the site. The Incas were an extremely talented race and their engineering feat here is fantastic.
We climbed Wanipicchu shortly after 10am then trekked to the Sun Gate to the East before taking the bus back down to town to catch our train back to Olyantambo.
What a wonderful day - one we will never forget!

Andean Community Trek

We just finished our 34k trek across the Andeas as we build up to visiting Machu Picchu tomorrow.
We started our trek in the community of Quishuarani where we camped overnight before visiting the local primary school. The programme, which we donate to as part of our trip, pays for many local projects such as the kids health check, which we oversaw. The kids were all fantastic and the doctors on our trip also chipped in with any complaints. It was great to spend time with the kids and the teachers - all of whom were pretty excited about seeing a big bunch of gringos.
We trekked on to Cuncani, passing a peak at 4000m. The treks were less taxing than we had originally expected so we both really enjoyed the experience. The 3rd day trek see us reach 4800m and the highest point of the trek. The images of the Andeans will stay with us for a long time.
The crew we had were utmostly professional, ensuring our tents were up when we arrived for camp. However, the biggest plaudits have to go to the cook team who woke us up with coca tea in the mornings, provided 3 magnificent meals a day as well as snack packs that kept us going.
Hats off to Andina Travel for making the experience so wonderful.
Tomorrow we trek up to Machu Picchu - something we have been looking forward to for over a year...

Lake Titikaka

We just spent 2 wonderful days on Lake Titikaka, which separates Bolivia and Peru in the small towns of Copacabana, Bolivia and Puno, Peru.
We travelled to Copacabana from La Paz and after a day of looking around this small tourist spot we took a boat trip the next day to the Isle of Sol. This is a historic destination for the people of South America as this is stated as where the Inca´s originated from before movingto Cusco. We took a 11k walk from the North to the South of the Island and the scenery was again magnificent. The walk also served as a good warm up for the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, which we start the day after tomorrow.
After a great day on the island we travelled the next day the short trip across the border into Peru and into Puno.
Puno has a beautiful central plazza and is also famous as the Urso people live on ´floating islands´made from reeds. We visited the islands and spent time with the people, who welcomed us into their homes and shared with us their customs and how they make the islands.
We´re now in Cusco - the final city of tour with Dragoman - where we will start and finish the Inca trail.
We are both looking forward to the Trek and Machu Pichu very much and at this moment are both feel in great shape for the 3-4 days of trekking.

Potosi, Bolivia

We visited the mines in the mining town of Potosi in Bolivia today and met and talked to a small number of the 2000 miners still working in these fascinating mines.
Potosi is stated to be ovr 4000m above sea level and you can certainly feel the difference in breathing at this altitude. It was once one of the richest cities in South America as it was the center for silver mining for the Spanish.
The mines today have very little silver left but has high deposits of zinc and tin.
We entered the mines today in a small group with a fantastic guide who introduced us to several miners working there today. They work for very long periods i.e. over 30 hours in one shift and due to the conditions within the mine they have an amazing diet of coca leaves, 96 percent alcohol and cinnamon flavoured cigarettes to ensure their energy levels remain high and they do not fall asleep.
We presented gifts to the miners and chatted a little through a translator - Tennille even got a ride on one of their trains going back into the mine.
It was another amazing experience during our time in Bolivia and one that really brought home to us again how amazingly lucky we both are.

Bolivia

We arrived in Bolivia over the weekend and we have been blown away by how beautiful this country and its people are.
The border crossing from Argentina was largely uneventful although the amount of activity at the border with Bolivian's carrying large quantities of goods back across the border literally on their backs. It was quite amazing to see.
We stayed for 2 night in the town of Topiza in a great hotel and went on a triathlon tour for the free day we had there. We are so glad we did - the morning was spent in the Northern and Southern parts of the town as we explored the magnificent red rock formations that surround Topiza. After a great local lunch of tomales we then took the jeeps to 3800m and rode mountain bikes downhill for about an hour on some crazily winding roads - it was a great experience. We then took a 2 hour ride on horses through the canyons as dusk came in.
It's pretty cold here during the evenings due to the high altitude and the change from the heat of the day can come upon you pretty quickly. Neither of us have suffered much from altitude sickness although we have been drinking litres of water every day.
We travlelled from Topiza to Uyuni today through some amazing mountains and desert plains - we even stopped to help dig a truck out of a sandy river crossing and all felt extremely proud at being able to do so.
The people in Bolivia are much like Argentina and Brazil - really friendly and in Bolivia the locals still wear traditional dress every day - the woman wearing fantastic colours and bowler hats that are really cute.
We are here for 2 nights before travelling to Postina and then La Paz - we visit the salt flats tomorrow which will be a major highlight of the trip.
Bolivia is a beautiful country with amazing landscapes - we hope the photos do it justice.
p.s. photos are a bit hard to download at the Internet shops and now that we have reached almost 800 we may have to wait until back in NY or Europe before posting the best ones.

Salta Rafting

We had an awesome time white water rafting and flying down zip lines in the mountains near Salta in NW Argentina.
We rode the zip lines on Thursday night and spent Friday the 13th on the rapids. They were grade 3 so the guide had to spin us around a few times but everyone had lots of fun and the views were fantastic.
The camp site was infested with mosquitos though so we left early and are now in Salta city.
We´ll cross the border into Bolivia tomorrow, which everyone is looking forward to as we head toward the Salt Plains...

Iguazu Falls

We arrived in Salta yesterday after spending 2 wonderful days at Iguazu Falls.
Iguazu sit on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and the water falls rival Victoria Falls in Africa as the worlds largest. The power and force of nature here is breathtaking and all photos are hard pushed to do justice.
We spent the first day on the Brazilian side where we took a helicopter ride above the falls before walking the length of the nature park overlooking the falls. However, the panoramic views from the Argentian side were spectacular and we spent day 2 walking the length of their naturist park with the center piece if the devils throat lookout point. We also took a raft trip that takes you into the falls themselves which was excilerating.
We have bush camped for 2 days since then with no real facilities and we are now in Salta rafting and canopying riding.