My first time guiding a paying customer

Yesterdays dive was to a site I had been to before and it's a pretty good place for beginners. The maximum depth is about 9 metres and itrsquos called blue lagoon for a reason. Another divermaster trainee was assisting with an open water course the first course you do whilst I guided a certified diver while the others were doing their skills underwater. I have to say I thought it was pretty fu

VIETNAM 1205Merry ChristmasChristmas Eve from ‘Nam

HEEELLLLLOOOOO It is Christmas here in Vietnam as we are 15 hours ahead of California time. the last two days in Vietnam have been some of the most amazing in my life. We took a night train to central Vietnam to a place called Hue pronounced Hway. In Hue we rented motorbikes and cruised around the countryside to visit the tombs of the emporers and some pagodas buddhist temples. I must adm

VIETNAM 1205Halong Bay Adventure

Hi everybody I'm emailing this On December 22nd. I quess Hanoi is 17 hours or so ahead of the West coast. I just returned from a two day boat trip to Halong Bay. For 28 U.S. dollars we got a 3 hour shuttle round trip 5 meals and a nite stay aboard a sail ship that coasted around Halong bay and stopped at this amazing cave. I mention the price all the time because I think it is amazing how muc

Travelling troubles…

Thursday 15 JulyI am now sitting in the departure lounge at Phuket airport determined to finish my travel blog before arriving back home in Sydney Not so the boys with their journals they are both still in London. Ryan is sitting next to me writing in his but as he puts so much detail into each entry I donrsquot expect him to finish before he is once again swamped by school work. I le

The colours of Kyrgyzstan

The colour of Kyrgyzstan is not red as the flag suggests or as might be associated with the recent spillage of blood in the south of the country. In fact there is not one colour you can put to it instead it consists of a kaleidoscope of colours and if you have ever hiked in the Kyrgyz Mountains you will know what I mean. Here you wade through a multi coloured world of flowers of all sizes and s

Day 9 Los Angeles

Today we were up and off for a drive to some of the beaches. Firstly we drove to Huntington Beach it seemed like a lovely area. We didn't stop there and decided to keep driving North along the coastline for a while passing Seal Beach and then on to Long Beach. We didn't stop there though. We kept driving to where the shipping areas are. We drove over 2 large and different bridges. There wer

Massage and Mao

62110 We began learning Chinese massage with Dr. Yang Yuncai whom we quickly noticed during the lecture had a habit of saying ldquohow to sayrdquo when we would normally say ldquoum.rdquo During the lecture he gave us an introduction to Chinese massage can treat and then taught us a few massage manipulations. Chinese massage has been around since ancient times and became an advanced cli

Stories of Makunduchi

Hello friends family and internet worldIt has been over two months since Irsquove been living in Makunduchi which means less than one month left. This both excites me and saddens me because after Zanzibar I will go on to living in Paris France and travelling throughout Europe but it also means this wonderful adventure will end and I will have to leave what have grown to be some really goo

Two Weeks in Kolkata and Rasta Bangla

It was great to be back but it seems it is time to move on.....A group of French people have invited me to go with them to Varanasi. I feel it is my duty to help out the new ferangi in India. Also it is a good excuse to get out of this city for some time.I love Kolkata. I absolutely love it. However it has been a bit intense. Yes it is great to know people but maybe I should go spend some t

Hotels

Hotels I was encouraged to name and rate the hotels I stayed in so that the good ones could be possibly be rewarded with business and readers of this blog could be warned about the bad ones. I sincerely appreciate the comments some of you have made and you can not imagine how it pleases me that some one I do know would get pleasure from reading my stuff. The first hotel I stayed in In Guayaquil wa

Picture Site and Downloads Available

All of the pictures used on the blog are now available HERE. There are currently 140 pictures available to view and download from the Germany leg of the exchange I'll add more in the coming days and I will also post the pictures from the Washington leg here as well.If you would like to add pictures to this site for others to view and download please email me BDavidsonbe.wdnet.edu and I will

Semuc Champey to Copan

DisclaimerDue to the terrible way this website works we are unable to rotate photos so apologies for those that are sideways or upside downWe went from Antigua to El Zonte in El Salvador a beautiful little fishing village on the coast. There our surfing lessons began we both managed to stand up a few times but Marshall had more success than Heloise. Our hotel was lovely with a pool and parrots

Rice a Roni and Full House

San Fransisco was amazing. Let's recap here's hoping I can remember it allThursday Night a date with Jen night. Being in Marin county is great Being in Marin county with a resident amazing I saw the cute spots on the water to hang got the low down on the neighborhoods and even saw where my friend grew up stilts redwoods and all Friday Boat TourThe highlight of this day could have

Pops Been to Glacier

Monday July14thDaily Information High temp 77 degreesLow temp 53 degreesCampground Elevation3553 above sea levelHighest Elevation 4653 above sea levelLowest Elevation 2250 above sea levelTraveled 237 miles Departed 845PDT Weather cool sunny HighlightsView of Coeur d' Alene Lake from high on Interstate beautiful Entered Montana Big Sky at 957 PDT 66miles across IdahoTrees and m

Travel deal I found to Santiago Chile

Off Clark Howard's website Delta offers a 680 roundtrip rate to Santiago Chile on August 7December 9 departures. A 10day advance purchase required. Travel any available day. Stay 790 days. Complete travel by December 29. Purchase by July 28.EnjoyMoose

Laos Drifting amid lost dreams

With 17 years' experience navigating the Mekong River Mr Puoy is reckoned to be the best riverboat captain in southern Laos. The watery labyrinth he works in contains a reputed 4000 islands so he needs to be pretty good.But right now at the end of a harsher than usual dry season the region's Laos moniker Si Phan Don Four Thousand Islands seems just a tad inaccurate.In a fading tropical dusk

Gama’s Paradise The Shops

Monday July13thDaily Information High temp 77 degreesLow temp 53 degreesWIND GoneCampground Elevation 2252 above sea levelHighest Elevation NA above sea levelLowest Elevation NA above sea levelTraveled 5 miles Departed NA PDT Weather cool sunny HighlightsThe Shops Coeur d' AleneThe ShopsThe ShopsSwam in cold Spokane River at campground 110 minsRelaxing todayOff to Glacier N

Charles Darwin research station 9mths

Wednesday 14.7.2010 day 273Charles Darwin research station 9mthsWe woke up a 500 and had bfast at 530 then got the boat across Puerta Ayora on Santa Cruz Island were we meet our new guide who got us taxis to the Charles Darwin Research Station the problem was the taxi did not know where to go and the guide made all the guys get in the back of the taxi standing up and holding on. As the taxi

First dayJaden

Today we woke up at 5 a.m. this morning to catch a flight at 8. we then touched down in seattle at approx. 945 seattle time 1045 colorado time. then we had a one hour lay over where we got lunch Qudoba and then boarded the plane. we then finaly landed in Juneau at 1215 alaska time 215 colorado time. we landed in the rain and cold and then got our rental car and went to the grocery store

Rabida Island

Tuesday 13.7.2010 day 272Rabida IslandWe had to get up at 545 today to have bfst at 615 to visit Puerto Egas in the morning we woke up and there were lots of other boat around and as we were having bfts we saw another boat already headed to the island. On the walk we saw finches warblers Galapagos more iguanas and sea turtles then we got to swim with the sea turtles I got to swim with about 4